Search Results
Working Paper
Nonlinear Search and Matching Explained
Competing explanations for the sources of nonlinearity in search and matching modelsindicate that they are not fully understood. This paper derives an analytical solution to atextbook model that highlights the mechanisms that generate nonlinearity and quantifiestheir contributions. Procyclical variation in the matching elasticity creates nonlinearity inthe job finding rate, which interacts with the law of motion for unemployment. These resultsshow the matching function choice is not innocuous. Quantitatively, the Den Haan et al.(2000) matching function more than doubles the skewness of ...
Working Paper
Recall and unemployment
Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) covering 1990-2011, we document that a surprisingly large number of workers return to their previous employer after a jobless spell and experience more favorable labor market outcomes than job switchers. Over 40% of all workers separating into unemployment regain employment at their previous employer; over a fifth of them are permanently separated workers who did not have any expectation of recall, unlike those on temporary layoff. Recalls are associated with much shorter unemployment duration and better wage changes. ...
Working Paper
Recall and Unemployment
We document in the Survey of Income and Program Participation covering 1990- 2013 that a surprisingly large share of workers return to their previous employer after a jobless spell and experience very different unemployment and employment outcomes than job switchers. The probability of recall is much less procyclical and volatile than the probability of finding a new employer. We add to a quantitative, and otherwise canonical, search-and-matching model of the labor market a recall option, which can be activated freely following aggregate and job-specific productivity shocks. Recall and search ...
Working Paper
Meeting technologies and optimal trading mechanisms in competitive search markets
In a market in which sellers compete by posting mechanisms, we allow for a general meeting technology and show that its properties crucially affect the mechanism that sellers select in equilibrium. In general, it is optimal for sellers to post an auction without a reserve price but with a fee, paid by all buyers who meet with the seller. However, we define a novel condition on meeting technologies, which we call invariance, and show that meeting fees are equal to zero if and only if this condition is satisfied. Finally, we discuss how invariance is related to other properties of meeting ...
Working Paper
The Matching Function and Nonlinear Business Cycles
The Cobb-Douglas matching function is ubiquitous in search and matching models, even though it imposes a constant matching elasticity that is unlikely to hold empirically. Using a general constant returns to scale matching function, this paper first derives analytical conditions that determine how the cyclicality of the matching elasticity amplifies or dampens the nonlinear dynamics of the job finding and unemployment rates. It then demonstrates that these effects are quantitatively significant and driven by plausible variation in the matching elasticity.
Discussion Paper
Why Is the Job-Finding Rate Still Low?
Fluctuations in unemployment are mostly driven by fluctuations in the job-finding prospects of unemployed workers?except at the onset of recessions, according to various research papers (see, for example, Shimer [2005, 2012] and Elsby, Hobijn, and Sahin [2010]). With job losses back to their pre-recession levels, the job-finding rate is arguably one of the most important indicators to watch. This rate?defined as the fraction of unemployed workers in a given month who find jobs in the consecutive month?provides a good measure of how easy it is to find jobs in the economy. The chart below ...