Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/311959 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17520
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Understanding specific barriers to job search and returns to relaxing these barriers is important for economists and policymakers. An experiment that changes the default process for initiating job applications increases applications by 600% on a search platform in Pakistan. Perhaps surprisingly, the marginal treatment-induced applications have approximately constant rather than decreasing returns. These results are consistent with a directed search model in which some jobseekers miss some high-return vacancies due to psychological costs of initiating applications. These findings show that small reductions in search costs can substantially improve search outcomes in environments with some relatively inactive jobseekers.
Subjects: 
behavioural economics
job search
search frictions
platform
JEL: 
J20
J60
O10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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