Job search and hiring with two-sided limited information about workseekers’ skills
This paper presents field experimental evidence that limited information about work-seekers’ skills distorts both firm and work-seeker behavior. Assessing work-seekers’ skills, giving work-seekers their assessment results, and helping them to credibly share the results with firms increases work-seekers’ employment and earnings. It also aligns their beliefs and search strategies more closely with their skills. Giving assessment results only to work-seekers has similar effects on beliefs and search, but smaller effects on employment and earnings. Giving assessment results only to firms increases callbacks. These patterns are consistent with two-sided information frictions, a new finding that can inform the design of information-provision mechanisms.