Hiring frictions and the promise of online job portals: Evidence from India

Firms reliant on traditional recruitment networks may be reluctant to hire unfamiliar candidates on online job portals, limiting their pool of potential employees. We randomly assign firms posting vacancies on a job portal to receive larger applicant pools, identity verification services or both. Firms receiving both treatments increase their overall hiring; an effect driven by portal hires who are retained beyond the standard assessment period stated by employers. The individual treatments, in contrast, do not induce hiring. These findings suggest that screening is a necessary technology to address hiring frictions and enable firms to expand beyond their traditional recruitment networks.