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A Life-Cycle Model of Trans-Atlantic Employment Experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Sagiri Kitao

    (Keio University)

  • Lars Ljungqvist

    (Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Thomas Sargent

    (New York University)

Abstract

To understand trans-Atlantic employment experiences since World War II, we build an overlapping generations model with two types of workers (high school and college graduates) whose different skill acquisition technologies affect their career decisions. Search frictions affect short-run employment outcomes. The model focuses on labor supply responses near beginnings and ends of lives and on whether unemployment and early retirements are financed by personal savings or public benefit programs. Higher minimum wages in Europe explain why youth unemployment has risen more there than in the U.S. Turbulence, in the form of higher risks of human capital depreciation after involuntary job destructions, causes long-term unemployment in Europe, mostly among older workers, but leaves U.S. unemployment unaffected. The losses of skill interact with workers' subsequent decisions to invest in human capital in ways that generate the age-dependent increases in autocovariances of income shocks observed by Moffitt and Gottschalk (1995). (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Sagiri Kitao & Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas Sargent, 2017. "A Life-Cycle Model of Trans-Atlantic Employment Experiences," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 25, pages 320-349, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:16-93
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2016.08.001
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    2. Hairault, Jean-Olivier & Langot, Francois & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2019. "Unemployment fluctuations over the life cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 334-352.
    3. Hashimoto, Ken-ichi & Ono, Yoshiyasu & Schlegl, Matthias, 2023. "Structural unemployment, underemployment, and secular stagnation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    4. Selahattin Imrohoroglu & Sagiri Kitao, 2010. "Social Security, Benefit Claiming and Labor Force Participation: A Quantitative General Equilibrium Approach," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2010-02, Center for Retirement Research, revised Mar 2010.
    5. Jean-Olivier Hairault & Francois Langot & Sophie Osotimehin, 2010. "Matching frictions, unemployment dynamics and the cost of business cycles," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(4), pages 759-779, October.
    6. Lin, Hsuan-Chih & Tanaka, Atsuko & Wu, Po-Shyan, 2021. "Shifting from pay-as-you-go to individual retirement accounts: A path to a sustainable pension system," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    7. Esteban-Pretel, Julen & Kitao, Sagiri, 2021. "Labor Market Policies in a Dual Economy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Laetitia Challe & Emmanuel Duguet & François Langot & L Yannick & Loic Du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2023. "Why are the older workers discriminated in hirings? [Pourquoi les seniors sont-ils discriminés à l'embauche?]," Working Papers halshs-04061727, HAL.
    9. Hairault, Jean-Olivier & Langot, Francois & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2019. "Unemployment fluctuations over the life cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 334-352.
    10. Etienne Lalé, 2018. "Turbulence and the employment experience of older workers," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 735-784, July.
    11. Cristina Lafuente, 2018. "Search capital and Unemployment Duration," 2018 Meeting Papers 427, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    13. Cristina Lafuente, 2017. "Search capital and Unemployment Duration (Preliminary)," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 283, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Heterogeneity; Search frictions; Experience; Human capital; Disutility of work; Aging; Job tenure; Unemployment duration; Hazard rate; Early retirement; Earnings volatility; Autocovariance of income shocks; Unemployment benefits; Job protection; Minimum wage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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