Networks and Job Search
My research examines how information about job openings travels through social networks. I focus on the role of information holders who make decisions to share or withhold information from their network members. Because I conduct interviews with information holders directly my data includes situations in which job information that was not shared as well as the pool of network members who did not receive information. These data are inaccessible using data on job seekers or job applicants. Drawing on information holders’ accounts of why they share or withhold information, I examine how incentives to share or withhold information vary across ties of different strength and across different types of labour markets.
My current project begins by developing network-based measures of occupational closures. With these measures I will select six labour markets in which to collect interview and survey data from information holders. Findings from this project will explaining in greater detail how information flow varies across labour markets and extend the theoretical scope of this research by examining the implications of these variations for workplace gender segregation.
Collecting Network Data
My research in social network survey methods examines the reliability of common methods of collecting egocentric network data. I examine how the organization of people in memory affects recall in social network surveys and how this in turn affects the reliability of data collected using name generators.
Future research will connect my work on cognitive networks and their effect on memory to my research on networks and information flow. I will examine how cognitive links between network members and information to which people are exposed affects recall and consequently subsequent information flow.