The more you know : information effects on job application rates in a large field experiment

Laura Katherine Gee

This paper presents the results from a 2.3 million person field experiment that varies whether or not a job seeker sees the number of applicants for a job posting on a large job posting website, LinkedIn. This intervention increases the likelihood that a person will finish an application by 3.5%. Women have a larger increase in their likelihood of finishing an application than men. Overall, adding this information to a job posting may offer a light-touch way to both increase application rates and alter the diversity of the applicant pool.

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Year of publication:	November 2016
Authors:	Gee, Laura K.
Publisher:	Bonn, Germany : IZA
Subject:	field experiment \| labor search \| social information \| big data \| gender \| risk aversion \| ambiguity aversion \| uncertainty \| herding \| competition \| Experiment \| Risikoaversion \| Risk aversion \| Feldforschung \| Field research \| Geschlecht \| Gender \| Arbeitsuche \| Job search \| Informationsverhalten \| Information behaviour \| Herdenverhalten \| Herding