Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13136
Authors: Girum Abebe; Stefano Caria; Marcel Fafchamps; Paolo Falco; Simon Franklin; Simon Quinn
Abstract: We show that helping young job-seekers to signal their skills to employers can generate large and persistent improvements in labour market outcomes. We do this by comparing anintervention that improves the ability to signal skills (the ‘job application workshop’) to a transport subsidy treatment designed to reduce the cost of job search. We find that in the shortrun both interventions have large positive effects on the probability of finding formal jobs. The workshop also increases the probability of having a stable job with an open-ended contract. Four years later, the workshop significantly increases earnings, job satisfaction and employment duration, while the effects of the transport subsidy have dissipated. These gains are concentrated among groups who generally have worse labour market outcomes. Overall, our findings highlight that young people possess valuable skills that are unobservable to employers. Making these skills observable generates earning gains that are far greater than the cost of the intervention.
Keywords: job search; youth unemployment; signaling; transport costs; urban growth
JEL Codes: O18; J22; J24; J61; J64; M53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Formal Jobs (J46) |
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Earnings (J31) |
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Job Satisfaction (J28) |
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Employment Duration (C41) |
| Transport Subsidy (L91) | Job Search Intensity (J68) |
| Transport Subsidy (L91) | Formal Jobs (J46) |
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Stable Jobs with Open-ended Contracts (J41) |
| Transport Subsidy (L91) | Long-term Employment Gains (J68) |
| Job Application Workshop (J68) | Visibility of Skills to Employers (J24) |