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Wage Aspirations and Unemployment Persistence

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  • Vincent Hogan

    (University College Dublin)

Abstract

The reservation wage is an integral part of most theories of involuntary unemployment. We use panel data to examine the empirical determinants of the reservation wage - in particular the influence of previous wages - and consider what this implies for the evolution of the natu- ral rate of unemployment. We find that previous wages have a significant but relatively small effect on reservation wages (an elasticity between 0.15 and 0.47). We also find considerable differences across genders with previous wages being more important for men and market wages being more important for women. Overall our results suggest that unemployment will adjust relatively quickly to shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Hogan, 2003. "Wage Aspirations and Unemployment Persistence," Working Papers 200310, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:200310
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Leland D. Crane, 2014. "Firm Dynamics and Assortative Matching," Working Papers 14-25, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Jakob B. Madsen, 2009. "The Dynamics Of Labour'S Income Shares And The Wage Curve–Phillips Curve Controversy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 56(1), pages 45-72, February.
    4. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin, 2023. "Employer Reallocation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Validation and Application of a Do-It-Yourself CPS," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 49, pages 58-76, July.
    5. Böheim, Renè & Horvath, Gerard Thomas & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "Great expectations: Past wages and unemployment durations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 778-785.
    6. Sarah Brown & Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2010. "Reservation wages, labour market participation and health," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(3), pages 501-529, July.
    7. 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 & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 877-883.
    8. Dawson, Chris, 2017. "The upside of pessimism − Biased beliefs and the paradox of the contented female worker," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 215-228.
    9. Bemjamin Villena-Roldan, 2009. "Aggregate Implications of Employer Search and Recruiting Selection," 2009 Meeting Papers 97, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Mark Stater & Jeffrey B Wenger, 2017. "The Immediate Hardship of Unemployment: Evidence from the US Unemployment Insurance System," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(1), pages 17-36, January.
    11. Pierre-Richard Agénor, 2005. "The Analytics of Segmented Labor Markets," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0529, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    12. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2013. "Reservation wages, expected wages and unemployment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 276-279.
    13. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2011. "Reservation wages, market wages and unemployment: Analysis of individual level panel data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1317-1327, May.
    14. Linda Babcock & William Congdon & Lawrence Katz & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2012. "Notes on behavioral economics and labor market policy," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Schreiber, Sven, 2009. "Explaining shifts in the unemployment rate with productivity slowdowns and accelerations: a co-breaking approach," Kiel Working Papers 1505, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Tripier, Fabien, 2006. "Sticky prices, fair wages, and the co-movements of unemployment and labor productivity growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2749-2774, December.
    18. Liina Malk, 2015. "Determinants of reservation wages: empirical evidence for Estonia," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2014-8, Bank of Estonia, revised 20 Jan 2015.
    19. Xavier Raurich (Universitat de Barcelona) & Valeri Sorolla (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), 2012. "Growth Models with Exogenous Saving Rates, Unemployment and Wage Inertia," Working Papers in Economics 287, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    20. Nordlund, Madelende & Strandh, Mattias, 2014. "The relation between economic and non-economic incentives to work and employment chances among the unemployed," Working Paper Series 2014:23, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    21. Xavier Raurich & Valeri Sorolla, 2008. "A General Framework for Growth Models with Non-Competitive Labor and Product Markets and Disequilibrium Unemployment," Working Papers 369, Barcelona School of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment Duration; Wages;

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

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