Improving Job Search Efficiency

Last registered on October 24, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Improving Job Search Efficiency
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001519
Initial registration date
August 31, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 31, 2016, 1:50 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
October 24, 2019, 3:01 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UC-Berkeley

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
World Bank
PI Affiliation
Mathematica Policy Research

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2015-04-01
End date
2016-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
India is in the paradoxical situation of both (1) identifying unemployment amoung the approximately 1 million yearly graduates from technical and vocational colleges as a major problem (National Knowledge Commission, 2009) and (2) employers complaining that they cannot fill positions requiring these same skills (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry FICCI, 2011). A crucial reason for this seems to lie in inefficient labor matching between employers and potential employees, as graduates have poor information about job opportunities, and organized systems for recruiting low and midlevel skilled talent are absent, particularly in emerging industrial clusters (National Skills Development Corporation, 2011).
Job Shikari is a new job information platform that aims to fill this void, by matching recent graduates from vocational training institutes (and other skilled and semi-skilled workers) with employers in emerging industrial clusters. Having already aquired a data-base of about 1 million job seekers through institutional arrangements, it is currently in the process of starting its operations. Funding from DIL would fund more rapid deployment of the platform; development of monitoring processes; a rigorous impact assessment study and an in-depth investigation into inefficiencies in the Indian labor market.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Magruder, Jeremy, Erin Kelley and Christopher Ksoll. 2019. "Improving Job Search Efficiency." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1519-2.1
Former Citation
Magruder, Jeremy, Erin Kelley and Christopher Ksoll. 2019. "Improving Job Search Efficiency." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1519/history/55796
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2015-04-01
Intervention End Date
2016-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Do individuals who receive access to Job Shikari experience better labor market outcomes, that is, are they more likely to be employed, to receive higher wages, or to migrate in order to take up job opportunities?
2) How do the benefits of Job Shikari vary across different demographics, that is, are they larger for rural graduates, or for individuals belonging to a disadvantaged group (secluded castes and tribes, women or religious minorities) who might lack access to occupation-specific networks?
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experimental design leverages two sources of randomization: First, we will randomize the order in which job seekers are invited to join Job Shikari. To complete this part of the design, Job Shikari has agreed to a roll-out the program among about 3500 job seekers. Half of them will be invited to join the job seeker data-base immediately, while the remaining ones will be included 12 months later. J-Pal South Asia will conduct a total of four surveys with these graduates: One will be a baseline survey before Job Shikari will roll out the program to these graduates, one during roll-out, and two surveys thereafter. These surveys will include both rich data on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (in particular gender, religion, caste, location of origin) as well as high frequency data on job search and labor market outcomes, which will allow us to assess experimentally whether access to an improved job search platform results in improved labor market outcomes and changes job search behaviors. On top of more conventional labor market outcomes like employment, occupation, and wages, our survey will also collect information on wage expectations and reservation wages which will be differentiated by location (rural / urban / metropolitain / regions). This additional data will increase our understanding of how migration and the willingness to migrate changes when exposed to broader (non-localized) information.

Second, we will also harness random variation on the intensive margin of Job Shikari’s services: Eligible job-seekers who match Job Shikari’s query will be sorted in random order. If employers are more likely to contact the first job seekers on the list, then the random ordering creates variation in job arrival rates within the treatment group. We will work with Job Shikari to program a randomized preference among these 4000 job seekers so that we can see how search and migration behavior responds to randomized variation in the intensive margin in job arrival rates.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Using a STATA code
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
3417
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Simple treatment of being added on the Job Shikari platform - 1518
Treament of being added on the Job Shikari platform and being given priority - 1100
Control - 799
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of California, Berkeley
IRB Approval Date
2014-07-01
IRB Approval Number
2014-07-6489
IRB Name
Institute of Financial Management and Research
IRB Approval Date
2014-07-05
IRB Approval Number
IRB00007107

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials