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Wage Dispersion with Heterogeneous Firm Technologies and Worker Abilities: An Equilibrium Job Search Model for Matched Employer-Employee Data

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Author Info
Postel Vinay Fabien
Robin Jean Marc ()

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Abstract

An equilibrium job search model with on-the-job-search is presented and solved, in which we allow firms to implement optimal wage posting strategies in the sense that they leave no rent to their employees and counter the offers received by their employees from competing firms. Unobserved worker productive heterogeneity is introduced in the form of cross-worker differences in a `competence' parameter. On the other side of the market, firms also are heterogeneous with respect to their (observable) marginal productivity of labor. The theoretical model can be solved in closed-form and typically delivers a hump-shaped aggregate earnings distribution that reflects both firm- and worker-heterogeneity. The fit to the observed earnings distributions is very good. The model also fits the observed distributions of firm sizes in the populations of workers and firms. Finally, it delivers both between- and within-firm endogenous wage dispersion. The structural model is estimated using matched employer and employee French panel data. Its fit to the data is good. We then use the results for two applications. The first one is a decomposition of the log-wage means and variances into additive firm and person effects. We find that the share explained by the person effect varies across skill groups, and is generally much smaller than what was found in previous analyses of the same panel. Specifically, this share lies close to 50% for high-skilled white collars, and quickly decreases to 0% as the observed skill level decreases. The second application is a look at the anatomy of the `matching technology'. We find evidence of nonmonotonic relationships between firm sizes, productivities and recruiting efforts.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA in its series Research Unit Working Papers with number 0008.

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Length: 59 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2000
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:lea:leawpi:0008

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Related research
Keywords: Labor market frictions; wage dispersion; log wage variance decomposition.;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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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.:
  1. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2004. "To Match or Not to Match? Optimal Wage Policy With Endogenous Worker Search Intensity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 7(2), pages 297-330, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Moscarini, Giuseppe, 2001. "Excess Worker Reallocation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 68(3), pages 593-612, July.
  3. Albrecht, James W & Axell, Bo, 1984. "An Equilibrium Model of Search Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(5), pages 824-40, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-69, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Ken Burdett & Randall Wright, 1998. "Two-Sided Search with Nontransferable Utility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(1), pages 220-245, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Mortensen, Dale T. & Vishwanath, Tara, 1994. "Personal contacts and earnings : It is who you know!," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 187-201, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Mortensen, D.T., 1998. "Equilibrium Unemployment with Wage Posting: Burdett-Mortensen Meet Pissarides," Papers 98-14, Centre for Labour Market and Social Research, Danmark-.
  8. Mortensen, Dale T & Pissarides, Christopher A, 1994. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 61(3), pages 397-415, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Burdett, Kenneth & Vishwanath, Tara, 1988. "Balanced Matching and Labor Market Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 1048-65, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Heckman, James J & Sedlacek, Guilherme, 1985. "Heterogeneity, Aggregation, and Market Wage Functions: An Empirical Model of Self-selection in the Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1077-1125, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2002. "The Distribution of Earnings in an Equilibrium Search Model with State-Dependent Offers and Counteroffers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(4), pages 989-1016, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Heckman, James J & Honore, Bo E, 1990. "The Empirical Content of the Roy Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(5), pages 1121-49, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Acemoglu, D. & Shimer, R., 1997. "Efficient Wage Dispersion," Working papers 97-7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
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  14. Mortensen, Dale T & Pissarides, Christopher, 1999. "New Developments in Models of Search in the Labour Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 2053, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Bontemps, Christian & Robin, Jean-Marc & van den Berg, Gerard J, 2000. "Equilibrium Search with Continuous Productivity Dispersion: Theory and Nonparametric Estimation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(2), pages 305-58, May.
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  16. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
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  17. Topel, Robert H, 1991. "Specific Capital, Mobility, and Wages: Wages Rise with Job Seniority," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 145-76, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  18. Dey, M. S. & Flinn, C. J., 2000. "An Equilibrium Model of Health Insurance Provision and Wage Determination," Working Papers 00-18, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University. [Downloadable!]
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  19. Heckman, James & Scheinkman, Jose, 1987. "The Importance of Bundling in a Gorman-Lancaster Model of Earnings," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(2), pages 243-55, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Bontemps, Christian & Robin, Jean-Marc & Van den Berg, Gerard J, 1999. "An Empirical Equilibrium Job Search Model with Search on the Job and Heterogeneous Workers and Firms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1039-74, November.
  21. Jean-Marc Robin ; Sébastien Roux_, . "Random or Balanced Matching : An Equilibrium Search Model with Endogenous Capital and Two-Sided Search," Working Papers 98-38, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique. [Downloadable!]
  22. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-73, May.
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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.)

  1. Gerard J. van den Berg & Aico van Vuuren, 2002. "The Effect of Search Frictions on Wages," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C1-2, International Conferences on Panel Data. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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