Occupational advice for job seekers in the Netherlands

Last registered on June 24, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Occupational advice for job seekers in the Netherlands
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007374
Initial registration date
March 17, 2021

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
March 17, 2021, 10:32 AM EDT

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

Last updated
June 24, 2025, 7:48 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Netherlands
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Paul Muller
Affiliation
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Michele Belot
PI Affiliation
Cornell University
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PI Name
Bart de Koning
PI Affiliation
Maastricht University
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PI Name
Didier Fouarge
PI Affiliation
Maastricht University
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PI Name
Philipp Kircher
PI Affiliation
Cornell University
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PI Name
Sandra Phlippen
PI Affiliation
Erasmus University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-03-22
End date
2022-10-12
Keywords
Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study the impact of an information treatment for unemployed job seekers. The treatment consists of a personalized email providing suggestions about suitable alternative occupations, including details on the labor market prospects of these occupations. An extended version of the treatment also adds a motivational video aiming to reduce psychological hurdles of switching to a different occupation. The email will be sent to jobseekers active in occupations with relatively bad labor market prospects and will be accompanied by a pre- and posttreatment survey on labor market beliefs and expectations. Administrative data on outflow to work will be used for an evaluation of long-term impacts.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Belot, Michele et al. 2025. "Occupational advice for job seekers in the Netherlands." AEA RCT Registry. June 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7374-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
see pre-analysis plan
Intervention (Hidden)
see pre-analysis plan
Intervention Start Date
2021-04-12
Intervention End Date
2021-05-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Receiving UI benefits
2. Being employed
3. Hours worked
4. Monthly labor earnings
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
see pre-analysis plan
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The sample contains all jobseekers receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in March 2020 that are registered to search primarily in one of 21 selected occupations with particularly bad job finding prospects. Randomly selected, 33% of these job seekers will receive an email containing information on 6 to 10 alternative occupations that fit well in terms of transferable skills and offer substantially better prospects. Another 33% of the sample will receive a similar email that only differs in that it includes an additional short motivational video.
Experimental Design Details
The sample contains all jobseekers receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in March 2020 that are registered to search primarily in one of 21 selected occupations with particularly bad job finding prospects. Randomly selected, 33% of these job seekers will receive an email containing information on 6 to 10 alternative occupations that fit well in terms of transferable skills and offer substantially better prospects. The occupational suggestions are different for each of the 21 selected occupations. The information is conveyed through a visualization and contains (for each suggestion) (i) the labor market tightness (ii) an indicator for long-term automation risk (iii) two key competencies (iv) a representative picture. The email is sent again after two weeks as a reminder. Another 33% of the sample will receive a similar email that only differs in that it includes an additional short motivational video. The video contains (self-recorded) stories of successful job-switchers. The final 33% does not receive any email and functions as the control group.

The interventions will be evaluated using (i) data from a pre-intervention survey, (ii) data from a post-intervention survey, (iii) administrative data from the employment office and (iv) data from a post-unemployment-spell survey. The pre- and postintervention surveys are very similar and collect information on the occupations of interest, beliefs about the labor market (hiring probabilities, salaries, job stability), reservation wages and job search activities (applications and job interviews). The complete survey is attached as an appendix to this pre-registration. Survey results will be linked to administrative data from the employment office on job search activities, UI benefit duration, basic demographics and information on post-unemployment jobs. Finally, the post-unemployment spell survey will be used to collect information on the occupation of the post-unemployment job. While (iii) covers the complete experimental sample, (i) and (ii) are collected on a subset. This allows us to assess whether participation in the survey itself has an impact on our outcomes of interest. (iv) is sent out to the entire sample, but will likely suffer from substantial nonparticipation.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
no clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
33000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
11000 individuals in control group, 11000 in treatment 1 group and 11000 in treatment 2 group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Pre-intervention survey
Document Type
survey_instrument
Document Description
Pre-intervention survey
File
Pre-intervention survey

MD5: 2473c1cf2364e21fa22ef2b4d9f467c1

SHA1: b89f6fe8be44b7f57b33de94511c7fbb8eabfbd5

Uploaded At: March 17, 2021

Document Name
Outflow survey
Document Type
survey_instrument
Document Description
Outflow (from UI) survey
File
Outflow survey

MD5: 3b89051b16e16617b96572da1fede38c

SHA1: c4b57dfb99c9d278ac42fb893585890ab1974f18

Uploaded At: March 17, 2021

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Research Ethics Review Board VU University Amsterdam, School of Economics and Business (SBE)
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-19
IRB Approval Number
20200428.1.pmr450
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-analysis plan

MD5: fba99a535c467d4cba84c3147918e3f6

SHA1: d1da026888489645d8c8a918b2cdf98c5a7bd729

Uploaded At: March 16, 2021

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