Informing the Job Search: A Field Experiment in an Urban Labor Market
Abstract: We examine the impact of labor market information on job search behavior and employment outcomes of job seekers in urban India. Through a cluster-randomized intervention in Delhi, over 3000 men and women are randomized into a treatment group in which they are informed and assisted in accessing a job matching platform, supplemented by phone messages that deliver either non-personalized or personalized labor market information; or a control group in which neither assistance with the matching platform nor any phone messages is given. Month-level analysis up to a year after intervention shows that while men reduced overall job search, women’s search shifted to online modes. Although any employment impacts petered out in the long run, we find evidence of a shift in occupational structure towards salaried work away from casual jobs, along with higher earnings, for women in later months. These impacts were relatively stronger in the personalized messaging group. We highlight the role of expectations and (mis)beliefs about the labor market in explaining our findings.
Nikita Sangwan is a lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast. Her primary research interests are in the fields of Technology, Labor, Environment, and Agriculture with a particular focus on the gender perspective.
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