Biased Beliefs about Outside Options and Wage Inequality (Follow-Up study in 2023)

Short Description: This module studies a novel hypothesis: are workers misinformed about outside options in the labor market? Canonical theories of labor markets – even search models – commonly assume that workers have perfect knowledge about the wages paid by other employers. This module systematically measures workers’ beliefs about outside opportunities with other employers and also conducts an experiment to update workers’ beliefs.

Available Papers
  • Jäger, Simon, Christopher Roth, Nina Roussille, and Benjamin Schoefer. 2021. Worker Beliefs About Outside Options. NBER Working Paper 29623. Berkeley: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). (https://doi.org/10.3386/w29623) (Also published in 2021: IZA DP No. 14963. Bonn: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).).

Contact

Syear

Respondents

Dataset

Variables

Availability

Field

Method

Replication

Simon Jäger (Massachusets Institute of Technology, Institute on Behavior & Inequality), Christopher Roth (Institute on Behavior & Inequality), Benjamin Schoefer (University of California, Berkeley)

2019

2762

inno

iverd14b_1, iverd11_1, iver_mdn_wage_greater_5800, iverd03b, iverd02_3, iverd03a_2, iverd03a_1b, iverd06, iverd11_5, iverd11_7, iver_mdn_wage, iverd01_1, iverd11_9, iverd10, iverd03a_1a, iverd12, im_iver, iverd03a_2a, iverd14a_2, iverd11_6, iverd01_2, iverd11_ka, iverd14b_ka, iverd11_10, iverd02_ka, iverd08, iverd14b_2, iverd02_2, iverd07, iverd11_2, iverd04, iverd11_4, iverd11_3, iverd00, iverd01_ka, iverd14b_3, iverd14a, iverd11_8, iverd09, iverd14a_1, iverd03a_1, iverd01_3, iverd02_1, iverd03a_2b, iverd15, iverd13

6/2022

Labor Economics

Survey items

2020