Increasing Employment with Coarse Information

Speaker
Todd Kaplan
Date
18/06/2024 - 12:30 - 11:15Add To Calendar 2024-06-18 11:15:00 2024-06-18 12:30:00 Increasing Employment with Coarse Information We investigate whether an agency can increase employment by strategically coarsening information about workers' skills and abilities to employers. Theoretically, we find that such an increase is possible, and a range of employment levels can be supported in equilibrium. We test this possibility using laboratory experiments under three conditions: full information, coarse and verifiable information, and coarse but not verifiable information.  We find that, compared with full information, both treatments with coarse information increase employment at the expense of the employers' profits but not to the highest theoretically achievable levels. We also find verifiability affects several aspects of behavior.  Joint with Surajeet Chakravarty and Luke Lindsay. BIU Economics common room אוניברסיטת בר-אילן - Department of Economics Economics.Dept@mail.biu.ac.il Asia/Jerusalem public
Place
BIU Economics common room
Affiliation
Haifa University
Abstract

We investigate whether an agency can increase employment by strategically coarsening information about workers' skills and abilities to employers. Theoretically, we find that such an increase is possible, and a range of employment levels can be supported in equilibrium. We test this possibility using laboratory experiments under three conditions: full information, coarse and verifiable information, and coarse but not verifiable information.  We find that, compared with full information, both treatments with coarse information increase employment at the expense of the employers' profits but not to the highest theoretically achievable levels. We also find verifiability affects several aspects of behavior. 

Joint with Surajeet Chakravarty and Luke Lindsay.

Last Updated Date : 13/06/2024