Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Franklin, Simon
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12509
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2353-2379
• 关键词: cash-on-hand; job search; migration; work

摘要

Do high search costs affect the labour market outcomes of jobseekers living far away from jobs? Irandomly assign transport subsidies to unemployed youth in urban Ethiopia. Treated respondents increase job search intensity and are more likely to find good, permanent, jobs. Subsidies also induce a short-term reduction in temporary work. I use a high-frequency phone call survey to track the trajectory of search behaviour over time to show that the subsidies significantly increased job search intensity and the use of formal search methods. The evidence suggests that cash constraints cause young people to give up looking for good jobs too early.