Present Bias and Non-Anticipated Revision in Search Behavior
Job-seekers frequently suffer from present-biased time preferences, causing them to postpone costly job search activities or accept immediate low-quality jobs despite intending to search for high-paying permanent positions.
Picture this
Imagine planning to go to the gym every morning next week, but when the alarm goes off each day, the immediate comfort of staying in bed outweighs the future benefit of getting fit—leading you to repeatedly abandon your past plans unless external structure is applied.
What the evidence says
Unanticipated present bias significantly moderates policy impacts; naive present-biased individuals who do not anticipate their revision behavior gain a **6.8 percentage point increase in permanent employment** from the application workshop (p < 0.01), whereas non-present-biased individuals exhibit no significant impact.
- Who
- **N = 1,956 participants** tested with incentivized time-preference tasks (Giné et al., 2017 methodology).
- How
- Baseline allocation of monetary tokens across future payment dates (30 vs 60 days) with a non-announced revision opportunity three days prior to payout to capture present bias and sophistication.
What to do
Incorporate behavioral commitment devices and structured assessment schedules into job search assistance programs to assist present-biased youth.
From the source
"We collected an incentivised measure of present bias... Present bias & not anticipating revision: Workshop treatment effect = 0.068 (p < 0.01) on permanent employment."
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