IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oxf/wpaper/95.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Microfoundations for the Aggregate Matching Function, with Empirical and Theoretical Implications

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret Stevens

Abstract

Although a number of different models have been suggested for the process that brings workers and firms together in the labour market, none of these performs well in empirical studies of the aggregate matching function. Empirically, the most successful functional form is Cobb-Douglas, for which there are no microfoundations in the existing literature. I present a new model for the matching process, based on a `telephone line` Poisson queuing process. This implies a CES matching function, approximately Cobb-Douglas when marginal search costs are approximately constant. The model provides an interpretation for empirical evidence, and insight into the theoretical efficiency conditions for matching models.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret Stevens, 2002. "New Microfoundations for the Aggregate Matching Function, with Empirical and Theoretical Implications," Economics Series Working Papers 95, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:95
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fefa264b-ec59-4009-af50-645d95cb8679
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher A. Pissarides & Barbara Petrongolo, 2001. "Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 390-431, June.
    2. Hall, Robert E., 1979. "A theory of the natural unemployment rate and the duration of employment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 153-169, April.
    3. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    4. Peter Diamond (ed.), 1990. "Growth / Productivity / Unemployment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262041103, December.
    5. Acemoglu, Daron & Shimer, Robert, 1999. "Holdups and Efficiency with Search Frictions," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(4), pages 827-849, November.
    6. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, December.
    7. Peters, Michael, 1984. "Bertrand Equilibrium with Capacity Constraints and Restricted Mobility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(5), pages 1117-1127, September.
    8. Moen, Espen R, 1997. "Competitive Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(2), pages 385-411, April.
    9. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mathan Satchi & Jonathan Temple, 2006. "Growth and labour markets in developing countries," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/581, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    2. Heidi Soininen, 2007. "Finnish Evidence of Changes in Labor Market Matching," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 57-71, Spring.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Rogerson & Robert Shimer & Randall Wright, 2004. "Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market-A Survey," NBER Working Papers 10655, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    3. Masanori Kashiwagi, 2018. "The Welfare Consequences Of A Quantitative Search And Matching Approach To The Labor Market," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 423-442, October.
    4. Guillaume Rocheteau & Pierre‐Olivier Weill, 2011. "Liquidity in Frictional Asset Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 261-282, October.
    5. Krolikowski, Pawel M. & McCallum, Andrew H., 2021. "Goods-market frictions and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Leo Kaas & Philipp Kircher, 2015. "Efficient Firm Dynamics in a Frictional Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3030-3060, October.
    7. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2020. "Search and matching frictions and business cycle fluctuations in Bulgaria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19(3), pages 319-340.
    8. Aleksander Berentsen & Guido Menzio & Randall Wright, 2011. "Inflation and Unemployment in the Long Run," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 371-398, February.
    9. Blázquez, Maite & Jansen, Marcel, 2003. "Efficiency in a matching model with heterogeneous agents: too many good or bad jobs?," UC3M Working papers. Economics we035019, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    10. Duffie, Darrell & Qiao, Lei & Sun, Yeneng, 2018. "Dynamic directed random matching," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 124-183.
    11. Hector Chade & Jan Eeckhout & Lones Smith, 2017. "Sorting through Search and Matching Models in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(2), pages 493-544, June.
    12. Sattinger, Michael, 2006. "Overlapping labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 237-257, April.
    13. Matthew Elliott, 2010. "Search with Multilateral Bargaining," 2010 Meeting Papers 1316, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    15. Berentsen, Aleksander & Menzio, Guido & Wright, Randall D., 2007. "Inflation and Unemployment: Lagos-Wright meets Mortensen-Pissarides," Kiel Working Papers 1334, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. Kawata, Keisuke & Nakajima, Kentaro & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2016. "Multi-region job search with moving costs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 114-129.
    17. Yashiv, Eran, 2007. "Labor search and matching in macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1859-1895, November.
    18. Bruche, Max & Segura, Anatoli, 2017. "Debt maturity and the liquidity of secondary debt markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 599-613.
    19. Rosch, Stephanie D & Zhang, Cathy & Preckel, Paul & Ortega, David L., 2015. "Do Search Frictions Compound Problems of Relational Contracting?," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205779, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Aubert, Diane & Chiroleu-Assouline, Mireille, 2019. "Environmental tax reform and income distribution with imperfect heterogeneous labour markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 60-82.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    search; matching function;

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anne Pouliquen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfeixuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.