The Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices

Muriel Niederle () and Alvin Roth

No 13529, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: New gastroenterologists participated in a labor market clearinghouse (a "match") from 1986 through the late 1990's, after which the match was abandoned. This provides an opportunity to study the effects of a match, by observing the differences in the outcomes and organization of the market when a match was operating, and when it was not. After the GI match ended, the market unraveled. Contracts were signed earlier each year, at diffuse times, often with exploding offers. The market became less national, more local. This allows us to discern the effect of the clearinghouse: it coordinated the timing of the market, in a way that increased its thickness and scope. The clearinghouse does not seem to have had an effect on wages. As this became known among gastroenterologists, an opportunity arose to reorganize the market to once again use a centralized clearinghouse. However it proved necessary to adopt policies that would allow employers to safely delay hiring and coordinate on using the clearinghouse. The market for gastroenterologists provides a case study of market failures, the way a centralized clearinghouse can fix them, and the effects on market outcomes. In the conclusion we discuss aspects of the experience of the gastroenterology labor market that seem to generalize fairly widely.

JEL-codes: J01 J3 J4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Note: EH LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as The Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices , Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth. in Studies of Labor Market Intermediation , Autor. 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w13529.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: The Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13529

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w13529

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().