Volume 20, Number 1 (Winter) 1985
Johnson, Terry R., Katherine P. Dickinson, and Richard W. West. 1985. "An Evaluation of the Impact of ES Referrals on Applicant Earnings." Journal of Human Resources 20(1):117-137.
The impact of the labor exchange activities of the United States Employment Service (ES) on job seekers is analyzed in this paper. We compare the labor market experiences following application to the ES of individuals who receive ES job referrals with the experiences of those who do not receive referrals. Extensive evidence is presented indicating that the not-referred group is a reliable comparison group for estimating the impact of ES referrals on applicant labor market experiences. Our impact estimates indicate that there are significant and sizable effects of a job referral for women, resulting in increased earnings and reduced length of time to reemployment. The impacts of a job referral for men, however, are not significantly different from zero.
Johnson is an economist with Battelle. Dickinson and West are economists
with SRI International.
The research reported in this paper was supported by the U.S.
Department of Labor (Contract No. 23-06-79-04). The views expressed are those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the
Department of Labor. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and helpful
comments of Burt Barnow and Seymour Brandwein. Ernst Stromsdorfer and two
anonymous referees also provided valuable comments on an earlier draft. The
authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful programming assistance of Susan
McNicoll, Alex Stagner, and Betty Harris.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X