What Can We Learn from Online Wage Postings? Evidence from Glassdoor

racking economic activity and interpreting economic phenomena are the most basic functions of economic research.However, obtaining an accurate description of the economy-in the form of economic data-is a challenging endeavor.Basic economic variables such as gross domestic product, consumption expenditures, investment, real wages, and others are available at the aggregate level.They are useful for time-series analysis but not to study issues such as wage or wealth inequality.To study heterogeneity, economists rely on household-level data from sources like the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the Survey of Consumer Finances, or the Consumption Expenditure Survey.However, these typically include only a sample of the population and are often subject to measurement errors.For this reason, economists have recently started to incorporate alternative sources that provide granular or disaggregated data, for example, websites that o¤er job and recruiting services.A growing number of sites give online information about di¤erent jobs around the US and worldwide.The websites collect, at the same time, personal and …nancial data from users.In light of this recent phenomenon, a question naturally arises: Can economists view these websites as a reliable source of new information? 1