Cellphone-Based Communication and Referral Data for Urban Labor Market Analysis in China

Panle Jia Barwick, Yanyan Liu, Eleonora Patacchini, Qi Wu

2023/04/19

This dataset is based on cellphone communication records from a major Chinese telecom provider in a northern city. It was used by Panle Jia Barwick, Yanyan Liu, Eleonora Patacchini, and Qi Wu in their 2023 American Economic Reviewstudy to analyze the role of social contacts and information flow in urban labor markets. The data captures communication patterns and referral dynamics around job transitions, allowing researchers to study how social networks mitigate information asymmetries.