Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Information Asymmetry in Job Search

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。在受教育程度相同的人群中，种族和性别之间的工资差距仍然存在，这在很大程度上归因于求职过程中的行为差异。经济理论表明，获取劳动力市场信息会影响人们的行为。如果信息在数量或质量上存在差异，这可能会导致工作选择的差异。跨越种族和性别，获得网络和指导的不平等已被证明会导致这些信息差距。为了检验信息获取是否有助于不同的求职结果，该项目将进行信息干预实验，首先评估不同种族和性别的学生对劳动力市场的信息是否存在差异。该项目将进一步探讨信息干预是否可以改变他们的求职行为，并有助于缩小工资差距。该项目将对考虑将信息干预作为减少性别和种族工资差距的低成本过程产生潜在的政策影响。该项目将以即将进入求职过程的大四学生为中心进行实验。实验组将按专业提供有关前几年学生起薪分配的信息，以及有关求职截止日期的提醒。控制组只会收到截止日期提醒。然后，该项目将检查治疗信息是否会改变求职行为：特别是接受工作的工资，拒绝工作的数量和工资，谈判行为以及对非工资福利的评估。为了考虑人口统计学组的异质性，将采用跨种族、性别和专业的分层随机分配来将参与者分为治疗组和对照组。研究结果将告知信息对劳动力搜索行为的影响，以及不同人口群体信息的差异影响的理解。研究结果也将有助于参数化具有信息不对称的劳动力搜索模型，其中系统信息差异导致保留工资的差异。该模型将允许估计反事实情景，重点关注在异质劳动力市场条件下缩小群体间信息差距的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Wage gaps across race and gender persist among equally educated individuals, and have been attributed in significant part to differences in behavior during job search. Economic theory suggests that access to information about the labor market influences behavior. If information differs across groups, either in quantity or quality, this can lead to differences in job choice. Across race and gender, unequal access to networks and mentoring has been shown to give rise to these information gaps. To test whether access to information contributes to different job search outcomes, the project will conduct an information intervention experiment to assess first whether students of different races and genders have differential information about the labor market. The project will further explore whether an information intervention could change their job search behavior and help bridge the gap in wages. The project will have potential policy implications in considering information intervention as a low-cost process for decreasing gender and racial wage gaps.The project will conduct and experiment that will center on college students in their senior year, who are about to enter the job search process. The treatment group will be provided with information about the starting salary distributions of students from prior years by major, along with reminders about deadlines for employment searches. The control group will only receive the deadline reminders. The project will then examine whether the treatment information changes job search behavior: in particular, the salary of the accepted job, the number and salary of jobs rejected, negotiation behavior, and valuation of non-wage amenities. To account for heterogeneity across demographic groups, stratified random assignment across race, gender, and major will be used to split participants into treatment and control. The results of the study will inform the understanding of both the effect of information on labor search behavior, as well as of the differential impact of information across demographic groups. The results will also help parameterize a labor search model with information asymmetry, where systematic informational differences lead to differences in the reservation wage. The model will allow for estimation of counterfactual scenarios focusing on the impact of narrowing information gaps across groups under heterogeneous labor market conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.