Job Fairs: Matching Firms and Workers in a Field Experiment in Ethiopia
This paper studies a randomized controlled trial of job fairs in Addis Ababa
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.
Citation
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, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27292 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Links
Job Fairs: Matching Firms and Workers in a Field Experiment in Ethiopia