Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stanton, Christopher T.; Thomas, Catherine
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdv042
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 810-854
• 关键词: labor-market; reputation; networks; TRADE

摘要

Online markets for remote labour services allow workers and firms to contract with each other directly. Despite this, intermediaries-called outsourcing agencies-have emerged in these markets. This article shows that agencies signal to employers that inexperienced workers are high quality. Workers affiliated with an agency have substantially higher job-finding probabilities and wages at the beginning of their careers compared to similar workers without an agency affiliation. This advantage declines after high-quality non-affiliated workers receive good public feedback scores. The results indicate that intermediaries have arisen endogenously to permit a more efficient allocation of workers to jobs.