Modelling online job search and choices of dentists in the Australian job market: Staged sequential DCEs and FIML econometric methods

Abstract

Workforce participation decisions involve multiple stages: search, screening and offer evaluation. Standard econometric practice focusses on these stages in isolation. We conceptualize the focal behaviours as separate sequential decision stages, and provide a stated preference measurement framework for online job search and choice with a behaviourally consistent modelling approach. We demonstrate this approach in an empirical application of 275 dentists who completed an online survey including two Discrete Choice Experiments: the first mimicked an online job search site in which dentists decided which jobs they would apply to and the second presented dentists with a job offer which they accepted or rejected. Modelling these tasks requires a two-stage econometric model that incorporates the likelihood of application (first stage) into the job offer choice (second stage). The model detects differences in preferences (hence behaviours) across stages, facilitating the differentiation of policy aimed at search and job choice behaviours. Job screening occurs during search and the marginal propensity to apply for a job-type differs from the offer stage. We suggest that the approach presented provides a valuable way to investigate how dentists particularly, and perhaps the health workforce more generally, respond at different stages of workforce participation decisions and discuss practical implications.