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Financial Factors and Labour Market Fluctuations

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  • Yahong Zhang

Abstract

What are the effects of financial market imperfections on unemployment and vacancies? Since standard DSGE models do not typically model unemployment, they abstract from this issue. In this paper I augment a standard monetary DSGE model with explicit financial and labour market frictions and estimate the model using US data for the period 1964:Q1-2010:Q3. I find that the estimated degree of financial frictions is higher when financial data and shocks are included. The model matches the aggregate volatility in the data reasonably well. In particular, for the labour market, the model is able to generate highly volatile unemployment and vacancies, and a relatively rigid real wage. Further, I find that the financial accelerator mechanism plays an important role in amplifying the effects of financial shocks on unemployment and vacancies. Overall, financial shocks explain about 37 per cent of the fluctuations in unemployment and vacancies.

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  • Yahong Zhang, 2011. "Financial Factors and Labour Market Fluctuations," Staff Working Papers 11-12, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:11-12
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Yahong, 2018. "Unemployment fluctuations in a small open-economy model with segmented labour markets: The case of Canada," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 6-20.
    2. Ian Christensen & Paul Corrigan & Caterina Mendicino & Shin‐Ichi Nishiyama, 2016. "Consumption, housing collateral and the Canadian business cycle," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(1), pages 207-236, February.
    3. Yahong Zhang, 2011. "Financial Frictions, Financial Shocks and Labour Market Fluctuations in Canada," Discussion Papers 11-10, Bank of Canada.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic models; Financial markets; Labour markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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