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Business Cycles, Unemployment Insurance, and the Calibration of Matching Models

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Author Info
James S. Costain ()
Michael Reiter ()

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Abstract

This paper points out an empirical failing of real business cycle models in which unemployment is endogenized through a matching function. One can easily choose a calibration to make the cyclical fluctuation in unemployment as large in the model as it is in the data, or to make the response of unemployment to a change in the unemployment benefit as small in the model as it is in the data. We show with a simple analytical calculation that in the standard job matching model, one cannot do both: improving the fit along one dimension makes it worse along the other. This conclusion is robust to the inclusion of capital, variable search intensity, variable match separation, or efficiency wages. We also propose two possible resolutions of the problem. Both sticky wages and embodied technological progress raise the business cycle variability of unemployment, without greatly changing the effects of policies, because they both make the flow of surplus to the firm more procyclical.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 1008.

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Date of creation: 2003
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1008

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Related research
Keywords: real business cycles; matching function; unemployment insurance;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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  16. 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)
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    Other versions:
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  23. 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)
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  30. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, January.
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