%0 Report
        %A Caria, A. Stefano
%A Franklin, Simon
%A Witte, Marc J.
        %T Searching with Friends
        %D 2020
        %8 2020 Nov
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 13857
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp13857
        %X We study how active labor market policies affect the exchange of information and support among jobseekers. Leveraging a unique social network survey in Ethiopia, we find that a randomized job-search assistance intervention reduces information sharing and support between treated jobseekers and their active job-search partners. Due to lower job-search support, untreated individuals search less and, suggestively, have worse employment outcomes. These results are explained by a model of networks where unemployed individuals form job-search partnerships to exploit the complementarities of job search. These partnerships are broken if policy creates inequality in the access to information about job vacancies.
        %K job search
%K social networks
%K RCT
%K active labor market policies