Network Search: Climbing the Job Ladder Faster

Marcelo Arbex, David Wiczer and Dennis O'Dea
Additional contact information
Dennis O'Dea: University of Washington

No 1195, 2018 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: We introduce an irregular network structure into a model of frictional, on-the-job search in which workers find jobs through their network connections or directly from firms. We show that jobs found through network search have wages that stochastically dominate those found through direct contact. In irregular networks, heterogeneity in the worker's position within the network leads to heterogeneity in wage and employment dynamics: better-connected workers climb the job ladder faster. Despite this rich heterogeneity from the network structure, the mean-field approach allows the problem of our workers to be formulated tractably and recursively. We then calibrate a quantitative version of our mechanism, showing it is consistent with several empirical findings regarding networks and labor markets: jobs found through networks have higher wages and last longer. Finally, we present new evidence consistent with our model that job-to-job switches at higher rungs of the ladder are more likely to use networks.

Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://red-files-public.s3.amazonaws.com/meetpapers/2018/paper_1195.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: NETWORK SEARCH: CLIMBING THE JOB LADDER FASTER (2019)
Working Paper: Network Search: Climbing the Job Ladder Faster (2018)
Working Paper: Network Search: Climbing the Job Ladder Faster (2016)
Working Paper: Network Search: Climbing the Job Ladder Faster (2016)
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:red:sed018:1195

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2018 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics Society for Economic Dynamics Marina Azzimonti Department of Economics Stonybrook University 10 Nicolls Road Stonybrook NY 11790 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().