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Labor Force Participation, Wages and Turbulence

Author

Listed:
  • Francesc Obiols-Homs
  • Virginia Sánchez-Marcos

Abstract

Participation of middle aged men with upper secondary education or less has decreased over the last two decades in the US. This comes together with wage stagnation for this demographic group. In this paper we use a general equilibrium model of the labor market with frictions, participation decisions and endogenous accumulation of skills through a learning by doing technology in order to understand these facts. We quantitatively assess the implications of an increase in the probability of skills loss during non-employment spells (turbulence, after Ljungqvist and Sargent, 1998) and show that non-participation increases and wages of more experienced workers fall because with increased turbulence their outside option worsens.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesc Obiols-Homs & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2022. "Labor Force Participation, Wages and Turbulence," Working Papers 1347, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:1347
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    participation in the labor market; turbulence; Labor market frictions; human capital;
    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
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • 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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