The Role of Referrals in Immobility, Inequality, and Inefficiency in Labor Markets

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Bolte, Lukas, Immorlica, Nicole, Jackson, Matthew O.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2020
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author Bolte, Lukas
Immorlica, Nicole
Jackson, Matthew O.
author_facet Bolte, Lukas
Immorlica, Nicole
Jackson, Matthew O.
contents We study the consequences of job markets' heavy reliance on referrals. Referrals lead to more opportunities for workers to be hired, which lead to better matches and increased productivity, but also disadvantage job-seekers with few or no connections to employed workers, increasing inequality. Coupled with homophily, referrals also lead to immobility. We identify conditions under which distributing referrals more evenly reduces inequality and improves future productivity and mobility. We use the model to examine the short and long-run welfare impacts of policies such as affirmative action and algorithmic fairness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2012_15753
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Role of Referrals in Immobility, Inequality, and Inefficiency in Labor Markets
Bolte, Lukas
Immorlica, Nicole
Jackson, Matthew O.
General Economics
Economics
Physics and Society
We study the consequences of job markets' heavy reliance on referrals. Referrals lead to more opportunities for workers to be hired, which lead to better matches and increased productivity, but also disadvantage job-seekers with few or no connections to employed workers, increasing inequality. Coupled with homophily, referrals also lead to immobility. We identify conditions under which distributing referrals more evenly reduces inequality and improves future productivity and mobility. We use the model to examine the short and long-run welfare impacts of policies such as affirmative action and algorithmic fairness.
title The Role of Referrals in Immobility, Inequality, and Inefficiency in Labor Markets
topic General Economics
Economics
Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.15753