Replication data for: Who Gets the Job Referral? Evidence from a Social Networks Experiment

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Lori Beaman; Jeremy Magruder

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Project Citation:

Beaman, Lori, and Magruder, Jeremy. Replication data for: Who Gets the Job Referral? Evidence from a Social Networks Experiment. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2012. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/E112577V1

Project Description

Summary: We use recruitment into a laboratory experiment in Kolkata, India to analyze how social networks select individuals for jobs. The experiment allows subjects to refer actual network members for casual jobs as experimental subjects under exogenously varied incentive contracts. We provide evidence that some workers, those who are high ability, have useful information about the abilities of members of their social network. However, the experiment also shows that social networks provide incentives to refer less qualified workers, and firms must counterbalance these incentives in order to effectively use existing employees to help overcome their screening problem.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      C91 Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual
      D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
      O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
      Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-11]

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Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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