What Determines the Reservation Wages of Unemployed Workers? New Evidence from German Micro Data

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What Determines the Reservation Wages of Unemployed Workers? New Evidence from German Micro Data

Author Info

Prasad, Eswar S. () (International Monetary Fund and IZA Bonn)

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Eswar Prasad

Abstract

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between reservation wages of unemployed workers and macroeconomic factors – including aggregate and local unemployment rates, generosity of the unemployment compensation system and characteristics of the wage structure – as well as individual-specific determinants, including proxies for general and specific human capital, length of unemployment spell and alternative income sources. The longitudinal aspect of the dataset (the German Socio-Economic Panel) provides an interesting perspective on how reservation wages change over time and how they correlate with accepted wage offers for workers who make the transition from unemployment to employment. The findings have important policy implications as well, since they shed some light on the disincentive effects of the German tax and transfer system for the labor supply and employment decisions of unemployed workers at different points of the skill/offer wage distribution.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 694.

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Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp694

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Paper
- Eswar Prasad, 2003. "What Determines the Reservation Wages of Unemployed Workers? New Evidence from German Micro Data," IMF Working Papers 03/4, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies
J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2003-02-10 (All new papers)
NEP-EEC-2003-02-10 (European Economics)
NEP-LAB-2003-02-10 (Labour Economics)
NEP-PKE-2003-02-10 (Post Keynesian Economics)

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.:

Kiefer, Nicholas M & Neumann, George R, 1979. "An Empirical Job-Search Model, with a Test of the Constant Reservation-Wage Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(1), pages 89-107, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Richard B. Freeman & Ronald Schettkat, 2000. "The Role of Wage and Skill Differences in US-German Employment Differences," NBER Working Papers 7474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Blau, David M, 1991. "Search for Nonwage Job Characteristics: A Test of the Reservation Wage Hypothesis," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 186-205, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Jones, Stephen R G, 1989. "Reservation Wages and the Cost of Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 56(222), pages 225-46, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Hui, Weng-Tat, 1991. "Reservation Wage Analysis of Unemployed Youths in Australia," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 1341-50, August.
Christoph Schmidt, 1990. "Testing the Stationary Search Model," Working Papers 646, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
Martin Feldstein & James M. Poterba, 1984. "Unemployment Insurance and Reservation Wages," NBER Working Papers 1011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
- Feldstein, Martin & Poterba, James, 1984. "Unemployment insurance and reservation wages," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 141-167. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Jones, Stephen R G, 1988. "The Relationship between Unemployment Spells and Reservation Wages as a Test of Search Theory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 103(4), pages 741-65, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Eswar Prasad, 2000. "The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure - Evidence and Interpretation," IMF Working Papers 00/22, International Monetary Fund.
Other versions:
- Eswar S. Prasad, 2004. "The Unbearable Stability of the German Wage Structure: Evidence and Interpretation," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 7. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Gorter, Dirk & Gorter, Cees, 1993. "The Relation between Unemployment Benefits, the Reservation Wage and Search Duration," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 55(2), pages 199-214, May.
Hunt, Jennifer, 1995. "The Effect of Unemployment Compensation on Unemployment Duration in Germany," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(1), pages 88-120, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
- Jennifer Hunt, 1992. "The Effect of Unemployment Compensation on Unemployment Duration in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 50, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
Lancaster, Tony & Chesher, Andrew, 1983. "An Econometric Analysis of Reservation Wages," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1661-76, November. [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.)

María Angeles Davia & Oscar D. Marcenaro Gutiérrez, 2008. "Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation," Hacienda Pública Española, IEF, vol. 186(3), pages 91-121, October. [Downloadable!]
María A. Davia & Óscar D. Marcenaro-Gutiérrez, 2007. "Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation wages in Southern Europe," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2007/13, Centro de Estudios Andaluces. [Downloadable!]
Markus Pannenberg, 2007. "Risk Aversion and Reservation Wages," SOEPpapers 23, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
Addison, John T. & Centeno, Mário & Portugal, Pedro, 2004. "Reservation Wages, Search Duration, and Accepted Wages in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 1252, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, 2008. "Reservation Wages, Expected Wages and Labour Market Outcomes: Analysis of Individual Level Panel Data," Working Papers 2008008, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2008. [Downloadable!]
Addison, John T. & Centeno, Mário & Portugal, Pedro, 2008. "Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 3289, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- John T. Addison & Mário Centeno & Pedro Portugal, 2008. "Do Reservation Wages Really Decline?: Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages," SOEPpapers 85, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
- John Addison & Mário Centeno & Pedro Portugal, 2009. "Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 1-8, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Marco Caliendo & Ludovica Gambaro & Peter Haan, 2007. "The Impact of Income Taxation on the Ratio between Reservation and Market Wages and the Incentives for Labour Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 2599, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Marco Caliendo & Ludovica Gambaro & Peter Haan, 2007. "The Impact of Income Taxation on the Ratio between Reservation and Market Wages and the Incentives for Labour Supply," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 670, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
- Marco Caliendo & Ludovica Gambaro & Peter Haan, 2009. "The impact of income taxation on the ratio between reservation and market wages and the incentives for labour supply," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 877-883. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Sarah Brown & Jenny Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2008. "Reservation Wages, Labour Market Participation And Health," Working Papers 2008002, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2008. [Downloadable!]

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