Data on websites that hosted job boards and CV banks in the U.S. from 2000 to 2011 reveal that websites imposed fewer restrictions (in terms of the duration of use) and lower fees for job searchers relative to employers. This asymmetry in the treatment (or the terms of use) changed as the relative scarcity of job searchers and job vacancies in the labor market in which the websites offered their services changed. Compared with job searchers, employers faced less stringent restrictions and lower fees when job searchers were scarce relative to job openings. These adjustments imply that the value of using an employment website changes with the number of potential users and the probability of finding a quality match. We find that these adjustments were most pronounced for websites that relied exclusively on employers and job searchers for their content (job ads and CVs). Whereas existing literature on the role that network size plays in intermediaries’ decision-making has focused on prices, our findings reveal that this focus can overlook other adjustments that affect the terms of use. Given that these adjustments in our context may result in longer periods during which CVs and job ads remain online, our findings suggest that the optimal design of intermediaries must include tools that help users sort through stale information.

中文翻译：

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使用条款和网络规模：来自美国在线招聘网站和简历银行的证据

2000 年至 2011 年美国求职委员会和简历银行网站的数据显示，与雇主相比，网站对求职者施加的限制（在使用时长方面）较少，费用也较低。随着求职者的相对稀缺以及网站提供服务的劳动力市场职位空缺的变化，这种待遇（或使用条款）的不对称性也发生了变化。与求职者相比，当求职者相对于职位空缺而言稀缺时，雇主面临的限制不那么严格，费用也更低。这些调整意味着使用就业网站的价值随着潜在用户的数量和找到优质匹配的概率而变化。我们发现，这些调整对于完全依赖雇主和求职者提供内容（招聘广告和简历）的网站最为明显。尽管有关网络规模在中介机构决策中所起作用的现有文献主要关注价格，但我们的研究结果表明，这种关注可能会忽视影响使用条款的其他调整。鉴于我们背景下的这些调整可能会导致简历和招聘广告在线保留的时间更长，我们的研究结果表明，中介机构的最佳设计必须包括帮助用户整理陈旧信息的工具。