The Potential of Recommender Systems for Directing Job Search: A Large-Scale Experiment

66 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2024

See all articles by Luc Behaghel

Luc Behaghel

Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Sofia Dromundo

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

Yagan Hazard

University of Turin - Collegio Carlo Alberto

Thomas Zuber

Banque de France

Abstract

We analyze the employment effects of directing job seekers' applications toward establishments likely to recruit. We run a two-sided randomization design involving about 800,000 job seekers and 40,000 establishments, based on an empirical model that recommends each job seeker to firms so as to maximize total potential employment. Our intervention induces a 1% increase in job finding rates for short term contracts. This impact comes from a targeting effect combining (i) a modest increase in job seekers' applications to the very firms that were recommended to them, and (ii) a high success rate conditional on applying to these firms. Indeed, the success rate of job seekers' applications varies considerably across firms: the efficiency of applications sent to recommended firms is 2.7 times higher than the efficiency of applications to the average firm. This suggests that there can be substantial gains from better targeting job search, leveraging firm-level heterogeneity.

Keywords: recommender systems, matching, RCT, active labor market policies

JEL Classification: J64

Suggested Citation

Behaghel, Luc and Dromundo, Sofia and Gurgand, Marc and Hazard, Yagan and Zuber, Thomas, The Potential of Recommender Systems for Directing Job Search: A Large-Scale Experiment. IZA Discussion Paper No. 16781, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4717694 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4717694

Luc Behaghel (Contact Author)

Paris School of Economics (PSE) ( email )

48 Boulevard Jourdan
Paris, 75014 75014
France

Sofia Dromundo

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) ( email )

2 rue Andre Pascal
Paris Cedex 16, 75775
France

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) ( email )

3, rue Michel-Ange
Paris cedex 16, 75794
France

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

15 Boulevard Gabriel Peri
Malakoff Cedex, 1 92245
France

Yagan Hazard

University of Turin - Collegio Carlo Alberto ( email )

via Real Collegio 30
Moncalieri, Torino 10024
Italy

Thomas Zuber

Banque de France ( email )

Paris
France

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