(Incorrect) Perceived Returns and Strategic Behavior among Talented Low-Income College Graduates

Jorge Agüero, Francisco Galarza () and Gustavo Yamada

No 2023-01, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Job applicants use resumes to send signals to potential employers. Applicants are free to select the items that go in their resumes and are expected to include signals they perceive will help them achieve their goals and avoid those that they anticipate could hurt them. We show that 92% of beneficiaries of a highly selective scholarship for poor and talented students avoid listing this award when applying for jobs. This is consistent with beneficiaries perceiving a negative labor market return from sending that signal. A correspondence study shows instead that listing the scholarship increases call back rates by 20%.

Keywords: perceived returns; strategic behavior; job seeking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2023-01.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: (Incorrect) Perceived Returns and Strategic Behavior among Talented Low-Income College Graduates (2023)
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:uct:uconnp:2023-01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics University of Connecticut 365 Fairfield Way, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark McConnel ().