Employers' hiring decisions and inefficiency in the market for economists

Employers' sampling process in the market for economists is used to highlight the origins of employment inefficiency in the labor market. This sampling process is made up of successive interviews which tends to underscore employers' beliefs about a job candidate's Intellectual Baggage ( IB) (i.e., the sum of his credentials as indicative of his potential productivity). It is shown that employers' budget constraints and conjunctures formulated through the sampling process about the candidates' expected productivity force a myopically optimal stopping decision which is the source of this inefficiency.