Online professional networking platforms are widely used and offer the prospect of alleviating labor market frictions. The study explores the running of the first randomised evaluation of training work-seekers to join and use one of these platforms. Training increases the end-of-program employment rate by 10% (7 percentage points), and this effect persists for at least twelve months. The available employment, platform use, and job search data suggest that employment effects are explained by work-seekers using the platform to acquire information about prospective employers, and perhaps by work-seekers accessing referrals and conveying information to prospective employers on the platform.

Source: Wheeler, Laurel E and Garlick, Robert and Johnson, Eric and Shaw, Patrick and Gargano, Marissa, Linkedin(to) Job Opportunities: Experimental Evidence from Job Readiness Training (September 11, 2019). Economic Research Initiatives at Duke (ERID) Working Paper No. 289, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3452249 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3452249