Ann Arbor Times

A recent study from the University of Michigan examines the impact of social media on job market success for doctoral candidates in economics. The research suggests that retweets from prominent economists can significantly enhance visibility and recognition for job seekers.

The study, titled "Social Media and Job Market Success: A Field Experiment on Twitter," explores how social media promotion affects job market outcomes, particularly focusing on underrepresented groups. Researchers analyzed 519 candidates in the 2022-2023 economics job market, using a dedicated Twitter account named 'Econ Job Market Helper' to tweet about each candidate's job market paper. This account had over 2,000 followers.

For a randomly selected subset of candidates, established economists with more than 4,000 followers were asked to 'quote-tweet' these posts. The results indicated a substantial increase in engagement: views rose by 442% and likes by 303% for papers in the treatment group. Notably, women in this group received one additional job offer compared to those in the control group.

"Social media has emerged as a popular tool for researchers to rapidly and broadly disseminate their latest findings. Promoting one’s work increases its chances of being noticed," said Jingyi Qiu, lead author and doctoral student at U-M’s School of Information. "Social media platforms give us new tools to reach out to people beyond our departments."

Beyond enhancing attention on research, active participation on social media offers additional benefits for young economists. "Many senior economists are very happy to share tips on how to navigate academia and write good papers," Qiu added.

The study was co-authored by Yan Chen and Alain Cohn from U-M's School of Information and Alvin Roth from Stanford University. It was recently published on SSRN, a social science working paper archive.