Publication: Job Fairs: Matching Firms and Workers in a Field Experiment in Ethiopia
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2017-06
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2017-06-21
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Abstract
Do matching frictions affect youth employment in developing countries? This paper studies a randomized controlled trial of job fairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The job fairs match firms with a representative sample of young, educated job-seekers. The meetings at the fairs create very few jobs: one for approximately 10 firms that attended. The paper explores reasons for this, and finds significant evidence for mismatched expectations: about wages, about firms' requirements, and the average quality of job-seekers. There is evidence of learning and updating of beliefs in the aftermath of the fair. This changes behavior: both workers and firms invest more in formal job search after the fairs.
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“Abebe, Girum; Caria, Stefano; Fafchamps, Marcel; Falco, Paolo; Franklin, Simon; Quinn, Simon; Shilpi, Forhad. 2017. Job Fairs: Matching Firms and Workers in a Field Experiment in Ethiopia. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8092. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27292 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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