Some contacts are more equal than others: Informal networks, job tenure, and wages

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Loury, LD
• 署名单位: Tufts University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/499974
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 299-318
• 关键词: old boy networks; labor-market; social resources; search; TIES; unemployment; mobility; outcomes; youth; women

摘要

The explanation typically given for longer tenure among workers who use informal contacts to find jobs is that relatives and friends reduce uncertainty about the quality of the match between worker and employer. An alternative explanation is that workers rely on informal information sources as a last resort. Such workers remain at their current jobs mainly because they have few alternative choices rather than because of better match quality. This article shows that the two different explanations are simultaneously valid for different types of contacts and can account for differences in the wage effects of job contacts.