Do digital information technologies help unemployed job seekers find a job? Evidence from the broadband Internet expansion in Germany

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies effects of the introduction of a new digital mass medium on reemployment of unemployed job seekers. We combine data on high-speed (broadband) internet availability at the local level with German individual register data. We address endogeneity by exploiting technological peculiarities that affected the roll-out of high-speed internet. The results show that high-speed internet improves reemployment rates after the first months in unemployment. This is confirmed by complementary analyses with individual survey data suggesting that internet access increases online job search and the number of job interviews after a few months in unemployment.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2018:21

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law ; Publicly Provided Goods: General ; Telecommunications ; Single Equation Models: Single Variables: Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
• Subject: Unemployment ; online job search ; information frictions ; matching technology ; search channels

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gürtzgen, Nicole ; Diegmann, André ; Pohlan, Laura ; van den Berg, Gerard J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/201459
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET