Anita Marie Glenny forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling

Anita Marie Glenny forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling: "Essays on Job Search"

Kandidat

Anita Marie Glenny

Titel 

"Essays on Job Search"

Tid og sted

9. november 2020 kl. 10:00. Link til at logge på online forsvaret: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/9536476672

Bedømmelsesudvalg

• Lektor Daniel le Maire, Økonomisk Institut, Københavns Universitet, Danmark (formand)
• Professor Andrea Weber, Department of Economics, Central European University
• Associate Professor Roland Rathelot, Department of Economics, University of Warwick

Abstract

This dissertation comprises of three independent chapters that individually contribute to research on job search during unemployment.

The first chapter "The Dynamics of Job Search in Unemployment" is co-authored with Jonas Fluchtmann, Nikolaj Harmon and Jonas Maibom. This paper contributes to current empirical knowledge on dynamic adjustments of job search during unemployment by shedding light on search behavior in terms of the number of applications, search methods used, and characteristics of the jobs that individuals target during their time as unemployed job seekers. We use a novel administrative data set containing actual job applications made by the universe of unemployment insurance recipients in Denmark. This data source is used in all three chapters. Our results show that under prolonged exposure to unemployment, the average individual only marginally changes the types of jobs applied for. We do, however, see moderate adjustment along certain dimensions such as channels used for search. When refocusing our evaluation to identify different groups of unemployed with similar job search behavior, substantial dynamic patterns are revealed for specific groups of unemployed.

The following two chapters explore job search behavior in coherence with job search outcomes. The second chapter, "The Gender Application Gap: Do men and women apply for the same jobs?", is co-authored with Jonas Fluchtmann, Nikolaj Harmon and Jonas Maibom. We study the extent to which gender differences in the jobs that men and women hold after unemployment are already present in the job search process. We provide first evidence on gender differences in job applications. Across a range of job characteristics there are substantial gender differences in the share of applications going to different types of jobs. These application gender gaps exist even among men and women with the same labor market observables and closely mirror gender gaps in actual hiring outcomes. In particular, women tend to apply for jobs that pay systematically lower wages. Gender differences in applications are capable of explaining more than 70 percent of the wage gap among men and women with the same labor market observables.

The third chapter "Digital Tools to Facilitate Job Search", is co-authored with Steffen Altmann, Robert Mahlstedt and Alexander Sebald, and finishes off with a nation-wide randomized controlled trial used to study how online job search assistance affects labor market outcomes and job search behavior of unemployed workers. We provide (i) recommendations for potentially promising occupations to consider, (ii) information about the number of available vacancies in occupations that the job seeker already considers, and (iii) both types of information. We find that vacancy information as well as occupational recommendations increase working hours and labor earnings for treated individuals relative to the control group. The effects on improved labor market outcomes of the information treatments are of same order of magnitude. With additional information on job seekers’ registered applications we show how the similar employment effects of occupational recommendations and vacancy information seem to be provoked by different adjustments of job search behavior. While occupational recommendations tend to widen job seekers’ focus towards other occupations, the vacancy information seems to lead job seekers to “zoom in” and consider a narrower set of occupations.

For at overvære ph.d.-forsvaret, se venligst link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/9536476672