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Measuring Recruitment Elasticity in the Multi-stage Job Matching Process

Year: 2025

Type: preprint

Abstract: This study addresses two conceptual issues in measuring recruitment elasticity: defining outcomes by matches rather than applications, and conditioning on workers observing posted wages. Using data from Japan's largest job matching intermediary tracking complete matching processes, we find recruitment elasticities around 1 for upper-wage workers but insignificant for lower-wage workers, indicating substantial employer market power. Wages significantly affect outcomes only at the application stage, not at subsequent interview or offer stages, consistent with directed search theory. These findings reveal heterogeneous monopsony power across worker segments with important implications for labor market policy.

DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/wavdn_v4

Authors: Ryo Kambayashi, Kohei Kawaguchi, Suguru Otani

Institutions: Hitotsubashi University, Waseda University, Jinan University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Funders: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology

Awards: The Value of Matchmaker, Industrial Organization Analysis from a New Perspective: Focusing on "People", Declining self-employment in Japan, revisited, Empirical Investigation of Search and Matching Behavior and Competition Policy Issues in the Labor Market, Labor market intermediation: theory and empirical evidence, G8058665615, The Value of Matchmaker, G925228835

OpenAlex ID: W4414971092

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