The More You Know: Information Effects on Job Application Rates in a Large Field Experiment

Abstract

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.

Keywords: field experiment, labor search, social information, big data, gender, risk aversion, ambiguity aversion, uncertainty, herding, competition

JEL Classification: C93, D01, D83, J21, J22