OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
We conduct a field experiment to study how unemployed job seekers’ subjective wage expectations shape their job search behavior and labor market outcomes. Using matched survey-administrative data from more than 9,000 unemployed workers in Denmark, we first document that job seekers anchor their wage expectations to their pre-unemployment wages by more than is objectively justified. A random half of the sample is provided with information about the objective wage potential of comparable workers, leading them to update their own wage expectations accordingly and to adjust their job search strategies. Ultimately, the treatment increases re-employment probabilities among both previous over- and previous under-estimators, but through different mechanisms. Initial over-estimators lower their reservation wages and increase their search effort. Initial under-estimators increase their reservation wages and redirect their job search to vacancies closer to their residence. Consistent with a reduction in search frictions in local labor markets—-which is unanticipated by workers—-they find re-employment sooner and at higher wages.
