Integrating mobile phone technologies into labor-market intermediation: a multi-treatment experimental design

Abstract

This study investigates the causal impacts of integrating mobile phone technologies into traditional public labor-market intermediation services on employment outcomes. By providing faster, cheaper and up-to-date information on job vacancies via SMS, mobile phone technologies might affect the rate at which offers arrive as well as the probability of receiving a job offer. We implement a social experiment with multiple treatments that allows us to investigate both the role of information channels (digital versus non-digital) and information sets (restricted [public] versus unrestricted [public/private]). The results show positive and significant short-term effects on employment for public labor-market intermediation. While the impacts from traditional labor-market intermediation are not large enough to be statistically significant, the unrestricted digital treatment group shows statistically significant short-term employment effects. As for potential matching efficiency gains, the results suggest no statistically significant effects associated with either information channels or information sets. JEL classification codes: I3, J2

Female Economic Participation with Information and Communication Technology Advancement: Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa

“…Therefore, appropriate technologies that can intermediate between demand and supply of labour will have a significant impact on the overall economic participation of individuals. For instance, a study by Dammert et al, (2015) on mobile phone technology and labour market intermediation highlights that through faster, cheaper and up-to-date information on job vacancies via SMS and mobile technologies, individuals are able to effectively participate in the labour market. Greene and Mamic (2015) further highlight that there is a changing dynamic in the world of work, such that the proliferation of information through communication technology (like mobile technology) is playing a central role in boosting productive activities.…”

How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries? A Critical Review of Recent Evidence

“…However, as seen in Table 9, out of the 10 different interventions, only one (Jensen, 2012) finds a significant impact on employment, increasing employment by 2.4 percentage points over 3 years. Dammert et al (2015) find their intermediation services tend to speed up the process of finding a job, with a significant employment impact after 1 month, but by 3 months the control group has caught up. Many of the other studies have small, but positive, point estimates, with an average impact across the studies of 2.7 percentage points.…”

“…These incorporate several types of specific interventions. The work that tests public intermediation services most directly is Dammert et al (2015), who worked with the public service provider in Peru to test whether providing information about job vacancies to registered job seekers improves employment, and additionally whether sending these announcements by SMS message helps further. Another example of providing information about job opportunities and recruiting services is Jensen (2012), who connected rural villages in India to experienced recruiters at the start of the business process outsourcing boom in India, providing information about this new sector.…”

Online Job Search Among Millennial Students in Malaysia

“…Dammert et al (2014) suggested that there is a positive and significant short-term effect on employment for public labor market intermediation.…”

“…The unprecedented expansion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the last two decades however has enabled and shaped the existence of a new array of labor market intermediaries, such as online job boards, social media sites, and e-recruiting firms, which have invigorated research in this area (Dammert et al, 2014). The growth in Internet revolutionized the way people communicate with one another.…”