Job Search, Matching, and Hiring with Two-Sided Limited Information about Workseekers\u27 Skills

Firms typically make hiring decisions with limited information about workseekers\u27 skills and productivity. Similarly, workseekers make job search and employment decisions with limited information about their own skills and productivity. These information frictions on both the demand and supply sides of the labor market can distort job search and hiring decisions, lowering employment, earnings, and labor productivity. This project measures the effects of information frictions using two theory-guided randomized experiments in South Africa. Workseekers\u27 skills in six dimensions are directly assessed and workseekers\u27 and firms\u27 access to this information is randomized. Early results suggest that giving firms access to information about workseekers skills substantially increases employment and earnings