In January 2016 IZA Journal of Labour Economics (IZA JOLE) published an article co-authored by Karolien Lenaerts, Miroslav Beblavý and Brian Fabo. The research piece discusses the potential of various new (web-based) data sources for economists and is accessible through open access.

Abstract

Along with the advancement of the Internet in the last decade, researchers have increasingly identified the web as a research platform and a data source, pointing out its value for labour market analysis. This article presents a review of online data sources for this field. Specifically, the article introduces web-based research, focusing on the potential of relatively new data sources such as Google Trends, social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) and Glassdoor (surveys). For these data sources, a review is done and recent empirical applications are listed. Web-based data can further our understanding of the dynamics of the labour market.

Read the article here: http://www.izajole.com/content/5/1/1