Wei-Fong Pan, a 1st year University of Reading Economics PhD student, has been accepted to present a paper at the 2nd IDSC of IZA/CAIS Workshop: Matching Workers and Jobs Online.
His paper, Decoding Job Search Behaviour Using Search Volume Data, will be presented at the conference, which is being held 20-21 September in Germany.
The abstract for the paper is: This study develops a set of job search (JS) indices based on China’s Internet search data that reflect the level of JS and overcome the problem of survey data unavailability. Based on these indices, we document that JS primarily occurs among males and individuals aged between 20 and 39, and further demonstrate its seasonality. Considering regional differences, the results suggest that JS behaviors are concentrated in the Eastern region, which is the most developed, but are lower in less developed regions. Moreover, weekends and holidays also have negative effects on JS in general. Lastly, we find that the cyclicality of JS behavior varies by region and the device on which JS is conducted. Although the aggregate JS index suggests that JS is countercyclical, we find certain regions’ JS to be procyclical or acyclical. Job seekers’ usage of the computer or mobile phone for JS activity also demonstrates different cyclicality. These results might help to reconcile the mixed evidence of JS cyclicality in the literature.