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Business cycles, unemployment insurance, and the calibration of matching models

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Costain, James S.
Reiter, Michael

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Abstract

This paper theoretically and empirically documents a puzzle that arises when an RBC economy with a job matching function is used to model unemployment. The standard model can generate sufficiently large cyclical fluctuations in unemployment, or a sufficiently small response of unemployment to labor market policies, but it cannot do both. Variable search and separation, finite UI benefit duration, efficiency wages, and capital all fail to resolve this puzzle. However, either sticky wages or match-specific productivity shocks can improve the model's performance by making the firm's flow of surplus more procyclical, which makes hiring more procyclical too.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.

Volume (Year): 32 (2008)
Issue (Month): 4 (April)
Pages: 1120-1155
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Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:4:p:1120-1155

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Feldstein, Martin S, 1978. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Temporary Layoff Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(5), pages 834-46, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Hosios, Arthur J, 1990. "On the Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 57(2), pages 279-98, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Gomes, Joao & Greenwood, Jeremy & Rebelo, Sergio, 2001. "Equilibrium unemployment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 109-152, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Millard, Stephen & Scott, Andrew & Sensier, Marianne, 1997. "The Labour Market over the Business Cycle: Can Theory Fit the Facts?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 70-92, Autumn.
    Other versions:
  5. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Bowlus, Audra J, 1995. "Matching Workers and Jobs: Cyclical Fluctuations in Match Quality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 335-50, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Eric M. Engen & Jonathan Gruber, 1995. "Unemployment Insurance and Precautionary Saving," NBER Working Papers 5252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Meyer, Bruce D, 1990. "Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Spells," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 757-82, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Richard Disney, 2000. "The Impact of Tax and Welfare Policies on Employment and Unemployment in OECD Countries," IMF Working Papers 00/164, International Monetary Fund.
  10. Robert Shimer, 2004. "The Consequences of Rigid Wages in Search Models," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 469-479, 04/05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Cole, Harold L & Rogerson, Richard, 1999. "Can the Mortensen-Pissarides Matching Model Match the Business-Cycle Facts?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(4), pages 933-59, November.
  12. Merz, Monika, 1995. "Search in the labor market and the real business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 269-300, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Wouter J. den Haan & Garey Ramey & Joel Watson, 2000. "Job Destruction and Propagation of Shocks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 482-498, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Nickell, Stephen, 1997. "Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-74, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Ehrenberg, Ronald G & Oaxaca, Ronald L, 1976. "Unemployment Insurance, Duration of Unemployment, and Subsequent Wage Gain," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 754-66, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Pissarides, Christopher A., 1998. "The impact of employment tax cuts on unemployment and wages; The role of unemployment benefits and tax structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 155-183, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  18. Shigeru Fujita, 2003. "The Beveridge Curve, Job Creation, and the Propagation of Shocks," Computing in Economics and Finance 2003 273, Society for Computational Economics.
  19. Robert E. Hall, 2003. "Wage Determination and Employment Fluctuations," NBER Working Papers 9967, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. James Costain, 1997. "Unemployment Insurance with Endogenous Search Intensity and Precautionary Saving," Economics Working Papers 243, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
  21. Robert Shimer, 2003. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies: Evidence and Theory," NBER Working Papers 9536, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Marimon, Ramon & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 1999. "Unemployment vs. Mismatch of Talents: Reconsidering Unemployment Benefits," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(455), pages 266-91, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  23. Robert E. Hall, 2005. "Employment Fluctuations with Equilibrium Wage Stickiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 50-65, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Bruce D. Meyer, 1995. "Lessons from the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 91-131, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas J. Sargent, 1998. "The European Unemployment Dilemma," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(3), pages 514-550, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  26. Andolfatto, David, 1996. "Business Cycles and Labor-Market Search," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 112-32, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. Bils, Mark J, 1985. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 666-89, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  28. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Peter Diamond, 1990. "The Beveridge Curve," NBER Reprints 1405, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Other versions:
  29. Atkinson, Anthony B & Micklewright, John, 1991. "Unemployment Compensation and Labor Market Transitions: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 1679-1727, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  30. Mortensen, Dale T & Pissarides, Christopher A, 1994. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 61(3), pages 397-415, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  31. McCall, John J, 1970. "Economics of Information and Job Search," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 113-26, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  32. Solon, Gary R, 1985. "Work Incentive Effects of Taxing Unemployment Benefits," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 295-306, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Roger E. A. Farmer & Andrew Hollenhorst, 2006. "Shooting the Auctioneer," NBER Working Papers 12584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. James Costain & Marcel Jansen, 2006. "Employment fluctuations with downward wage rigidity: the role of moral hazard," Banco de España Working Papers 0632, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  3. Bjoern Bruegemann & Giuseppe Moscarini, 2007. "Rent Rigidity, Asymmetric Information, and Volatility Bounds in Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 13030, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Mark Gertler & Antonella Trigari, 2006. "Unemployment fluctuations with staggered Nash wage bargaining," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Michael U. Krause & Thomas A. Lubik, 2007. "On-the-job search and the cyclical dynamics of the labor market," Working Paper Series 779, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Mark Bils & Yongsung Chang & Sun-Bin Kim, 2007. "Comparative Advantage in Cyclical Unemployment," NBER Working Papers 13231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. James Costain & Marcel Jansen, 2006. "Employment Fluctuations with Downward Wage Rigidity," Computing in Economics and Finance 2006 204, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2007. "The Unemployment Volatility Puzzle: Is Wage Stickiness the Answer?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0839, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  9. Michael Reiter, 2006. "Embodied Technical Change And The Fluctuations Of Wages and Unemployment," Economics Working Papers 980, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
  10. Simon Burgess & Helene Turon, 2005. "Worker Flows, Job Flows and Unemployment in a Matching Model," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 05/572, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. [Downloadable!]
  11. Matthias S. Hertweck, 2006. "Strategic Wage Bargaining, Labor Market Volatility, and Persistence," Economics Working Papers ECO2006/42, European University Institute. [Downloadable!]
  12. Robert Shimer, 2004. "The Consequences of Rigid Wages in Search Models," NBER Working Papers 10326, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Christian Haefke & Marcus Sonntag & Thijs van Rens, 2007. "Wage Rigidity and Job Creation," Economics Working Papers 1047, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jul 2007. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Rafael Domenech & Javier Andres & Javier Ferri, 2006. "Price Rigidity and the Volatility of Vacancies and Unemployment," Working Papers 0601, International Economics Institute, University of Valencia. [Downloadable!]
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