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Endogenous separation, wage rigidity and the dynamics of unemployment

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Listed author(s):
  • Tortorice, Daniel L.

Abstract

Previous attempts to evaluate the Mortensen–Pissarides model rely on either endogenous separation or wage rigidity. In this paper I simulate a version of the Mortensen–Pissarides (MP) model with wage rigidity and endogenous separation. The model is then able to answer a key question in the literature: can wage rigidity and endogenous separation explain the joint dynamics of unemployment, vacancies and wages? I find that it can. The model generates sufficient volatility in unemployment, the separation rate and the finding rate, 75% of the observed volatility in vacancies, and 70% of the Beveridge curve (the negative correlation between unemployment and vacancies). More substantially, the model matches the volatility of the average wage and generates a response of new hires’ wages to productivity and unemployment consistent with key estimates in the literature. I then simulate the model while restricting the separation rate to be constant and show that the model predicts only 70% of the variance of unemployment. I conclude that finding rate fluctuations explain 70% of unemployment fluctuations halfway in between the most prominent estimates in the literature.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Macroeconomics.

Volume (Year): 38 (2013)
Issue (Month): PB ()
Pages: 179-191

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:38:y:2013:i:pb:p:179-191
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2013.06.002
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622617

Keywords: Unemployment; Search models; Business cycles;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by 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
  • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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Cited by:

  1. Markus Kirchner & Rodrigo Tranamil, 2016. "Calvo Wages Vs. Search Frictions: a Horse Race in a DSGE Model of a Small Open Economy," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 778, Central Bank of Chile.

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