IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v89y2024ics0927537124000691.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do employers learn more from referrals than from other recruitment channels?

Author

Listed:
  • Gürtzgen, Nicole
  • Pohlan, Laura

Abstract

We study whether referrals deliver better information about the productivity of new hires than other recruiting channels. Using combined vacancy-register data, we document that referrals are associated with less screening and lower search costs. We demonstrate that the referral wage premium is informative on referrals’ information advantage only if differences in screening are accounted for. Consistent with the predictions from a learning model, referrals increase new hires’ job stability and wages, with the effects diminishing over time. Results suggest that the referral information advantage is particularly pronounced for males and when employers use referrals as the only search channel.

Suggested Citation

  • Gürtzgen, Nicole & Pohlan, Laura, 2024. "Do employers learn more from referrals than from other recruitment channels?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:89:y:2024:i:c:s0927537124000691
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000691
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102574?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Matching; Referral based hiring; Information frictions; Recruiting channels;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:89:y:2024:i:c:s0927537124000691. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.