Words by Christian Imdorf, Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel (UNIBAS)

The Workshop “Factorial survey designs in labor market research” took place on 9 November 2016 at the University of Bern.

Several Swiss research teams present preliminary results of recruiter survey experiments, offering a platform for fruitful discussion of results and analytical strategies: amongst others the NEGOTIATE project (pdf) at the University of Basel, the Integration through Active Labor Market Policies (nccr-onthemove.ch) project of the nccr-on the move, and the Education and Employment (lives.nccr.ch) project of the NCCR-LIVES.

Moreover, in two keynote speaches, Prof. Andreas Damelang (University of Erlangen) presented research on recruitment and vocational training, and Dr. Valentina Di Stasio (University of Oxford) presented her work on the influence of overeducation in hiring.

Besides lively discussions on the two keynotes and the different presentations, all research teams obtained valuable feedbacks on their specific projects from both speakers and the audience.

In particular, insights were exchanged about data analysis and the best ways to present factorial vignettes for the purpose of studying hiring decision. The attendance of 25 national and international guests from different disciplines allowed the members of the Swiss teams both to deepen their exchange on the different projects as well as to network and establish new professional contacts. The discussion benefitted a lot from the researchers’ interdisciplinarity, which opened new perspectives on the various analysis.