工作推荐有助于减少大阳城集团娱乐网站市场的摩擦, allowing for greater ease in the matching of workers and firms. 更重要的是,在美国大约有一半的求职者在找工作.S. report that referrals were used at some point during their hiring process.1 事实上, 公司经常鼓励员工推荐工作候选人, 尽管一些组织, 关心裙带关系, 不允许雇员转介亲友.

考虑到转诊的广泛使用, a natural question is: How do referrals affect the hiring process, 包括工人与公司匹配的速度, 这些比赛的质量, 工人的工资, 以及工作时间的长短? 本杰明·莱斯特 费城联邦储备银行, 西安大略大学的大卫·里弗斯说, and 乔治•Topa of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Institute of Labor Economics (or IZA) in Bonn, 德国, address these questions and the policy implications in their paper, “大阳城集团娱乐网站市场转诊的异质性影响.”

The theoretical literature has proposed a number of different channels through which job referrals can ease market frictions and affect labor market outcomes. 然而, the existing empirical literature has struggled to identify which of these channels best explains the patterns observed in the real world, in part 因为 most data sets contain little information about exactly how a worker found their job. 莱斯特, 河流, and Topa are able to shed light on this topic by making use of a relatively new data set, available thanks to a supplement to the Survey of Consumer Expectations (administered by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). This monthly survey provides detailed information on how a wide range of U.S. 工人——跨越各种职业, 行业, 人口统计资料, 和地理位置,找到了他们的工作, including specific information about whether or not they used a referral.

作为他们分析的第一步, the authors use the survey data to distinguish the source of a worker’s referral as either a “family member or friend” or a “business contact.”2 进一步, they classify the skill requirement of each worker’s occupation using the Nam–Powers–Boyd (NPB) occupational index, which ranks job type based on the educational levels and earnings of workers. (例如, 法律, 电脑, 数学专业获得了最高的NPB分数, while food preparation and building and grounds cleaning/maintenance receive the lowest scores.)

The authors find that both types of referrals — those from business contacts and those from family and friends — are important for helping workers and firms form new matches. 然而, their analysis reveals that the two types of referrals are used by different types of workers and have very different implications for labor market outcomes. 特别是, they find that referrals from business contacts are used relatively more frequently by workers seeking high-skilled jobs, whereas referrals from family and friends are more common in the market for low-skilled jobs.

除了, they find that workers who find their jobs through a business referral tend to earn higher starting 工资 but leave their jobs more quickly. 更深入的研究, the authors find that these two characteristics are intricately linked: The workers who use business referrals tend to earn high 工资 因为 they have frequent job opportunities, which is also why they tend to change jobs often. 与此形成鲜明对比的是, workers who find their jobs through a referral from a family member or friend typically earn a lower starting wage but stay at their jobs for a longer tenure. These referrals act as a “last resort” in cases where workers struggle to find jobs through more traditional channels.3

为了进一步探索这些模式的含义, the authors construct an economic model of the labor market in which workers use different channels to find jobs, 无论是失业的还是有工作的. Interpreting the data through the lens of an economic model reveals a number of additional insights. 最重要的是, since business referrals tend to be used by workers in high-skilled jobs who already have good job prospects through other channels, 商业推荐的使用趋向于 加剧 收入不平等. 与此形成鲜明对比的是, 因为 referrals from family and friends tend to be used by workers in low-skilled jobs who struggle to find a job through traditional channels, 使用来自家人和朋友的推荐往往会 减少 收入不平等. 事实上, 作者估计, 在低技能工人, referrals from family and friends account for over 15 percent of total earnings and a 5-percentage-point reduction in the unemployment rate of low-skilled workers.

These findings hold important lessons for policy going forward. 特别是, while nepotism laws are often intended to promote fairness and equality, the authors find that banning referrals from family and friends could hurt the very workers these policies are supposed to protect, 这是, workers at the bottom of the income distribution who struggle to find employment opportunities elsewhere. 与此同时, referrals from business contacts — which are often rewarded at large, private firms — seem to have a greater role in generating inequality.

  1. 比如,马克·格兰诺维特, 找工作:人际关系和职业的研究, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995; and William P. 布里奇斯和韦恩J. 维勒梅兹,《大阳城集团娱乐网站市场的非正式雇佣和收入》 美国社会学评论, 51:4 (1986), pp. 574–582.
  2. The authors define referrals from business contacts as those coming from a current company employee or a former coworker, 主管, 或商业伙伴.
  3. 这个概念在Linda D. Loury, “Some 联系s Are More Equal than Others: Informal Networks, Job Tenure, and Wages,” 劳动大阳城集团娱乐网站学杂志, 24:2 (2006), pp. 299–318.