Empirical Evaluation of Broader Job Search Requirements for Unemployed Workers

Bas van der Klaauw and Heike Vethaak ()
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Heike Vethaak: University of Leiden

No 15698, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyses data from a large-scale field experiment where unemployed workers were randomly assigned to an additional caseworker meeting with the purpose to impose a broader job search strategy. We find that the meeting significantly increases job finding and is cost effective. However, caseworkers differ substantially in the rate at which they impose broader job search. We exploit this heterogeneity in caseworker stringency and the random assignment of unemployed workers to caseworkers within local offices to evaluate the broader search requirement. Our results show that imposing the broader search requirements reduces job finding. We argue that restricting the job search opportunities forces unemployed workers to search sub-optimally which negatively affects labor market outcomes.

Keywords: unemployment; broader job search; caseworker stringency; caseworker meetings; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J22 J64 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Empirical Evaluation of Broader Job Search Requirements for Unemployed Workers (2022)
Working Paper: Empirical Evaluation of Broader Job Search Requirements for Unemployed Workers (2022)
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