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Competition between Employed and Unemployed Job Applicants: Swedish Evidence *
Author(s) -
Eriksson Stefan,
Lagerström Jonas
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.725
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1467-9442
pISSN - 0347-0520
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2006.00462.x
Subject(s) - productivity , competition (biology) , labour economics , economics , demographic economics , unemployment , job interview , business , management , economic growth , ecology , biology
We use the Swedish Applicant Database to investigate empirically whether being unemployed per se reduces the probability of getting contacted by a firm. All searchers looking for a new job are invited to submit their personal details to this database over the internet. Since we have access to exactly the same information as the firms, we can minimize the problems associated with unobserved heterogeneity. Our results show that an unemployed applicant faces a lower contact probability than an otherwise identical employed applicant, thus supporting the notion that firms view employment status as a signal of productivity.