How Search Technology Shapes Wage Inequality and Job Allocations

Abstract

Using Craigslist's expansion in the 2000s, I show search technology raised the local college wage premium by 3–5% with no effect on college employment share. A general equilibrium search model with task-based framework reveals improved matching efficiency protects less-educated workers from automation. Search technology interacts with production technology and college expansion, accounting for ~12% of the rise in wage premium since 1980.