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Vera Brencic

University of Alberta, Canada

Its quick reach of a wide audience makes IZA World of Labor a perfect outlet for policy-relevant research. It has been an honor to be able to contribute

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Alberta, Canada

Research interest

Labor economics, search and matching, personnel economics

Website

https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/vbrencic

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Consultant to Human Resources and Social Development Canada

Past positions

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Alberta (July 2006–June 2012); Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Purdue University (January 2006–June 2006)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Purdue University, 2005

Selected publications

  • "Employers’ efforts to deter shirking in teams." Labour: Review of Labor Relations 29:1 (2015): 55–78.

  • "Search online: Evidence from information acquisition on online job boards and resume banks." Journal of Economic Psychology 42 (2014): 112–125.

  • "Employers’ online recruitment and screening practices." Economic Inquiry 50:1 (2012): 94–111 (with J. B. Norris).

  • "On-the-job tasks and performance pay: A vacancy-level analysis." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 63:3 (2010): 511–542 (with J. B. Norris).

  • "Employers’ hiring practices, employment protection, and costly search: A vacancy- level analysis." Labour Economics 16:5 (2009): 461–479.

article(s)

  • Interaction between technology and recruiting practices

    While technology has improved sharing and managing information, there are legitimate concerns about the quality of information and its use in recruitment

    Vera Brencic, August 2021
    Employers are steadily increasing their reliance on technology when recruiting. On the one hand, this technology enables the wide dissemination of information and the management of large quantities of data at a relatively low cost. On the other hand, it introduces new costs and risks. The ease with which information can be shared, for example, can lead to its unauthorized use and obsolescence. Recruiting technologies are also susceptible to misuse and to biases built into their underlying algorithms. Better understanding of these trade-offs can inform government policies aiming to reduce search frictions in the labor market.
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