2014/03/12 by Kory Kroft, Devin G. Pope · 3 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #Digital Platforms and Economics #ICT Impact and Policies
paper · doi:10.1086/673374
openalex publication_date 2014/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Since the seminal work of Stigler in 1962, economists have recognized that information is costly to acquire and leads to “search frictions.” Growth in online search has lowered the cost of information acquisition. We analyze the expansion of the website Craigslist, which allows users to post job and housing ads. Exploiting the sharp geographic and temporal variation in the availability of online search induced by Craigslist, we produce three key findings: Craigslist significantly lowered classified job advertisements in newspapers, caused a significant reduction in the apartment and house rental vacancy rate, and had no effect on the unemployment rate.