G²LM|LIC - Labor Supply Complementarities in Urban Côte d‘Ivoire

The researchers conducted two field experiments in urban Côte d’Ivoire. In the first experiment, job seekers are 16pp more likely to accept a formal full-time factory job if their network members also receive a job offer, and 15pp more likely to stay in that job four months later—but only if they will be employed in the same shift (rather than different shifts).

These effects are driven by workers with long commute times, who can commute to work together. Consistent with this channel, in the firm’s administrative data, workers’ own attendance and turnover are predicted by the attendance and quits of co-commuting peers. In a second field experiment with a different firm, the researchers again randomize whether a worker’s network members are offered a job, whether they would be co-located with the worker, and job location—inducing exogenous variation in commute time.