facilitators. Assessments are conducted in English and are self-administered on desktop computers. Appendix Table D.1 shows standardized scores on all six assessments. There is a fairly even spread of candidates over the distribution and little evidence of ceiling effects.

Appendix Table A.2 shows the correlation matrix between different skills. We interpret candidates with different assessment results as different worker types, in the language of the conceptual framework. Scores are weakly correlated across assessments, with pairwise correlations between 0.05 and 0.51. Hence, the assessments horizontally differentiate candidates based on their relative skills rather than only ranking them in a single dimension of skills.

Candidates have inaccurate beliefs about their own types, suggesting a role for workseeker-side information frictions. We ask candidates in which tercile they believe they ranked for each of the communication, concept formation, and numeracy assessments, after taking the assessments but before any candidates learn their results. Only 8% of candidates answer correctly for all three assessments and 28% of candidates answer incorrectly for all three assessments. Overconfidence is more common than underconfidence: 22% of candidates overestimate their tercile on all three assessments and 1% underestimate their tercile all three assessments (Appendix Table D.1).

# **3 Labor Market of**

## **3.1 Intervention**

Our first certification intervention gives candidates information about their assessment results and allows them to share the results with prospective employers. The effects of this intervention may reflect reductions in firm- or workseeker-side information frictions. In either case, the framework predicts that certified workseekers will have higher employment and higher earnings conditional on employment.

Candidates receive a certificate describing the assessments and their performance (Figure 1). They receive 20 color copies printed on high-quality paper and an email version. Each certificate briefly describes Harambee and its placement and assessment work. To provide credibility to the assessments and results, the certificate is branded with the World Bank logo and Harambee logo. Harambee is a widely recognized brand in South African marketing surveys (Mackay, 2014).

The certificate describes the skills measured by each assessment. The certificate directs the reader to www.assessmentreport.info for more information on Harambee and the assessments. The website shows sample questions for each assessment and describes how psychologists have designed and evaluated the assessments. For each skill, the certificate shows the tercile in which the candidate ranked on each assessment, compared to other candidates assessed by Harambee.<sup>13</sup> The candidates assessed by Harambee are described as South African high school graduates aged 18-34 from disadvantaged backgrounds. To link candidates with certificates, each certificate shows the

> 13In piloting, both workseekers and firms found certificates with only rankings easier to interpret than certificates with only cardinal scores or both rankings and cardinal scores.

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