Stanton, ChristopherThomas, Catherine2017-09-112015Stanton, Christopher T., and Catherine Thomas. 2015. “Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring.” The Review of Economic Studies 83 (2) (September 17): 810–854. doi:10.1093/restud/rdv042.0034-6527http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33867364Online markets for remote labour services allow workers and firms to contract with each other directly. Despite this, intermediaries—called outsourcing agencies—have emerged in these markets. This article shows that agencies signal to employers that inexperienced workers are high quality. Workers affiliated with an agency have substantially higher job-finding probabilities and wages at the beginning of their careers compared to similar workers without an agency affiliation. This advantage declines after high-quality non-affiliated workers receive good public feedback scores. The results indicate that intermediaries have arisen endogenously to permit a more efficient allocation of workers to jobs.en-USLabour market intermediationOffshoringIncomplete informationJournal Article2017-05-1020152017-09-1110.1093/restud/rdv042