Seminar

CEEG Seminar Series: Informed job entry

Does labour market information speed job taking in Mozambique?

On Wednesday 26 January 2022, Ricardo Santos, UNU-WIDER Research Fellow, will present a recent study on the role of information on wages and unemployment on the entry into the Mozambican labour market.

The seminar pertains to the CEEG Seminar Series, organized under the Inclusive growth in Mozambique (IGM) programme. The seminars offer a forum to share and discuss ongoing research on topics related to the work of the IGM programme and to foster a culture of research at the faculty and at UEM in general.

The seminars take place at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM). It is a public event open to everyone. The presentation will be given in Portuguese.

 

About the study

Very high youth unemployment rates and long school-to-work transition times, including among those who complete higher education, pose a threat to low-income countries’ sustainable growth prospects. Using a randomized control trial experiment conducted in Mozambique, we find strong evidence that providing information on wages and unemployment reduces the time university graduate job seekers take to be employed, with different levels of efficacy depending on the type of information provided. This relatively low-cost mechanism can, therefore, reduce labour market frictions at the point of entry, contributing for a quicker intake of qualified human capital into economies where it is relatively scarce.