What’s the Inside Scoop? Challenges in the Supply and Demand for Information on Employers

Show Me the Amenity: Are Higher-Paying Firms Better All Around?

“…We make use of these data to assess differences in competition for firms' vacancies in Table J10. (Sockin and Sojourner, 2020), then higher-paying firms may exhibit elevated levels of satisfaction not because of improved amenities, but rather omission in reporting. This concern is formally addressed in Table J2: While a greater share of workers providing only a pay report is associated with higher-paying firms, and such firms on average report greater levels of satisfaction, the potential bias induced from workers choosing which information to supply does not alter the main findings.…”

“…To reduce measurement error in application rates, I consider only postings that receive at least 5 impressions. A more in-depth discussion of how this dataset was constructed is presented in Sockin and Sojourner (2020).…”

“…Another is that as workers climb the job ladder, workers benefit from improved attributes that were previously inaccessible at lower rungs. Examining these possibilities further I leave to future researchers.46 Since reporting one's location and job title in an employer review is optional and may reflect a strategic concealment decision(Sockin and Sojourner, 2020), the baseline approach conditions on neither.47 Subsequent wages are on average more positive, consistent with movement up the job ladder over the life cycle or positive selection on unobservables, and subsequent ratings are on average more negative, possibly reflecting an increased propensity for workers to voice their views when dissatisfied (TableJ16).…”

Non-Disclosure Agreements and Externalities from Silence

“…A firm's reputation is important for competing in labor markets (Carmichael, 1984;Turban and Cable, 2003;Benson et al, 2020;Filippas et al, 2020;Sockin and Sojourner, 2020) and consumer markets (Shapiro, 1983;McDevitt, 2011;Cabral and Hortaçsu, 2010;Liu and Shankar, 2015). One way firms can manage their reputation is by prohibiting workers from disclosing negative information about the firm through the use of broad non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).…”

“…their job title), which makes it difficult for jobseekers to ascertain the credibility or relevance of the supplied information. Indeed, Sockin and Sojourner (2020) show that reviewers who supply negative reviews are more likely to conceal aspects of their identity. Given this result, one might naturally expect that our finding of more negative reviews might lead to more identity concealment.…”