VoxEU Column
The sobering story of the website that attempted to bring unemployment down
A large literature documents the positive effects of experiments aiming to alleviate the informational and behavioural challenges jobseekers face. In contrast, this column evaluates the impact of an online platform for jobseekers in France and finds no impact on time spent looking for a job, search scope, or self-reported wellbeing. The results also show no effect on any employment outcome in the short or medium run. Future interventions should be rooted in an in-depth understanding of jobseekers’ behaviour and their needs to increase the odds of successfully addressing these needs.
