关于信念、信息与工作的实地实验

Firms often use social networks to find workers, limiting the pool of potential applicants. We conduct a field experiment subsidizing firms’ formal vacancy posting. The subsidies increase non-network employee search and shift vacancies towards high-skilled positions. Post-treatment, firms continue searching for high-skilled workers despite reverting to network-based search. This change in skill requirements does not increase vacancy posting or hiring, suggesting substitutability between workers of different skill levels. Finally, we experimentally show that information asymmetries about applicants’ skills do not limit firms’ formal search. Our results highlight that exposure to different labor market segments can permanently change firms’ labor demand.

@article{hensel2026formalized,
  author  = {Hensel, Lukas and Tekleselassie, Tsegay and Witte, Marc},
  title   = {{Formalized Employee Search and Labor Demand}},
  journal = {Journal of Development Economics},
  year    = {2026},
  note    = {Forthcoming}
}

@unpublished{garlickwpjobseekers,
  author = {Garlick, Rob and Hensel, Lukas and Kiss, Andrea and Orkin, Kate},
  title  = {{Jobseekers’ Beliefs about Comparative Advantage and (Mis)Directed Search}},
  note   = {Revise and resubmit, AEJ: Applied}
}

We conduct a natural field experiment with a major European party to test whether giving party supporters more voice increases their engagement in the party’s electoral campaign. In the experiment, the party asked a random subset of supporters for their opinions on the importance of different policy areas. Giving supporters opportunities to voice their opinions increases their engagement in the campaign as measured using behavioral data from the party’s smartphone application. Survey data reveals that giving voice also increases other margins of campaign effort as well as perceived voice. Our evidence highlights the importance of voice for increasing political engagement.

@article{hager2025voice,
  author  = {Hager, Anselm and Hensel, Lukas and Roth, Christopher and Stegmann, Andreas},
  title   = {{Voice and Political Engagement: Evidence from a Field Experiment}},
  journal = {Review of Economics and Statistics},
  volume  = {107},
  number  = {4},
  pages   = {1149--1158},
  year    = {2025}
}