IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v35y2003i13p1469-1476.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of local unemployment rates on reservation wages and the duration of search for a job

Author

Abstract

Evidence about the relationship of local unemployment rates and individuals' reservation wages and duration of search for a job if unemployed is sparse and mixed. This study uses US data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to test whether relatively high local unemployment rates reduce the reservation wages of area residents or increase the duration of search. Labour search theory provides the grounding for the sample selection corrected simultaneous equations econometric model. In neither OLS nor 2SLS results is evidence found that local unemployment rates affect either reservation wages or the duration of search. These results suggest that policies targeted at alleviating unemployment should focus on increasing the demand for labour rather than hope that such policies will be beneficial if pursued in high-unemployment areas because of their effects on labour force characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald Haurin & Kala Sridhar, 2003. "The impact of local unemployment rates on reservation wages and the duration of search for a job," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(13), pages 1469-1476.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:35:y:2003:i:13:p:1469-1476
    DOI: 10.1080/0003684032000081302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0003684032000081302
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0003684032000081302?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brock, William A. & Durlauf, Steven N., 2001. "Interactions-based models," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 54, pages 3297-3380, Elsevier.
    2. Kala Seetharam Sridhar, 1996. "Tax Costs and Employment Benefits of Enterprise Zones," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 10(1), pages 69-90, February.
    3. Feldstein, Martin & Poterba, James, 1984. "Unemployment insurance and reservation wages," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 141-167.
    4. Charles F. Manski, 2000. "Economic Analysis of Social Interactions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 115-136, Summer.
    5. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle, August.
    6. Stephen R. G. Jones, 1988. "The Relationship Between Unemployment Spells and Reservation Wages as a Test of Search Theory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(4), pages 741-765.
    7. Gronau, Reuben, 1974. "Wage Comparisons-A Selectivity Bias," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1119-1143, Nov.-Dec..
    8. Fishe, Raymond P H, 1982. "Unemployment Insurance and the Reservation Wage of the Unemployed," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(1), pages 12-17, February.
    9. Harry J. Holzer, 1986. "Reservation Wages and Their Labor Market Effects for Black and White Male Youth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(2), pages 157-177.
    10. Nickell, S J, 1979. "The Effect of Unemployment and Related Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 89(353), pages 34-49, March.
    11. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    12. 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.
    13. Harry J. Holzer, 1987. "Job Search by Employed and Unemployed Youth," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 40(4), pages 601-611, July.
    14. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    15. 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.
    16. Timothy J. Bartik, 2003. "Local Economic Development Policies," Upjohn Working Papers 03-91, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    17. Jones, Stephen R G, 1989. "Reservation Wages and the Cost of Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 56(222), pages 225-246, May.
    18. Lancaster, Tony & Chesher, Andrew, 1983. "An Econometric Analysis of Reservation Wages," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1661-1676, November.
    19. Stephen M. Petterson, 1998. "Black-White Differences in Reservation Wages and Joblessness: A Replication," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(3), pages 758-770.
    20. Balvers, Ronald J, 1990. "Variability and the Duration of Search," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(3), pages 747-751, August.
    21. Lippman, Steven A & McCall, John J, 1976. "The Economics of Job Search: A Survey," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(3), pages 347-368, September.
    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. Sarah Brown & Gurleen Popli & Alessandro Sasso, 2022. "Decomposing the gender reservation wage gap in Italy: A regional perspective," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 499-540, March.
    2. Piekkola, Hannu, 2006. "Tax cuts and employment: Evidence from Finnish linked employer-employee data," Discussion Papers 1041, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    3. Madhu Mohanty, 2005. "An alternative method of estimating the worker's reservation wage," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 501-522.
    4. Melanie Arntz & Ralf Wilke, 2009. "Unemployment Duration in Germany: Individual and Regional Determinants of Local Job Finding, Migration and Subsidized Employment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 43-61.
    5. Kesternich, Iris & Schumacher, Heiner & Siflinger, Bettina & Valder, Franziska, 2022. "Reservation wages and labor supply," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 583-607.
    6. Luis Eduardo Arango & Ana María Ríos, 2015. "Duración del desempleo en Colombia: género, intensidad de búsqueda y anuncios de vacantes," BORRADORES DE ECONOMIA 012528, BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA.
    7. Luis Eduardo Arango & Ana María Ríos, 2015. "Duración del desempleo en Colombia: género, intensidad de búsqueda y anuncios de vacantes," Borradores de Economia 866, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    8. María Angeles Davia & Oscar D. Marcenaro Gutiérrez, 2008. "Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 186(3), pages 91-121, October.
    9. Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, "undated". "Reservation Wages, Expected wages and the duration of Unemployment: evidence from British Panel data," Working Papers 2009001, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    10. repec:npf:wpaper:19 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. 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.
    12. repec:ind:nipfwp:04 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Kala Seetharam Sridhar, 2005. "Impact of Growth Centres on Unemployment and Firm Location: Evidence from India," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Incentives for Regional Development, chapter 6, pages 117-138, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Sridhar, Kala Seetharam, 2004. "Impact of the enterprise zone," Working Papers 04/19, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    15. Matthew Forbes & Andrew Barker, 2017. "Local Labour Markets and Unemployment Duration," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(301), pages 238-254, June.
    16. 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.
    17. repec:npf:wpaper:04 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. d'Haultfoeuille, Xavier, 2010. "A new instrumental method for dealing with endogenous selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 154(1), pages 1-15, January.
    19. Kala Seetharam Sridhar, 2006. "Local Employment Impact of Growth Centres: Evidence from India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(12), pages 2205-2235, November.
    20. repec:ind:nipfwp:19 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Kala Seetharam Sridhar & A.V. Reddy, 2015. "India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS): Wages, Reservation Wages and Programme Participation in Chitradurga District of Karnataka," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 40(3-4), pages 366-384, August.

    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. Madhu Mohanty, 2005. "An alternative method of estimating the worker's reservation wage," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 501-522.
    2. Mr. Eswar S Prasad, 2003. "What Determines the Reservation Wages of Unemployed Workers? New Evidence From German Micro Data," IMF Working Papers 2003/004, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Enswar Prasad, 2001. "The Dynamics of Reservation Wages: Preliminary Evidence from the GSOEP," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(1), pages 44-50.
    4. 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.
    5. Laurence Rioux, 2001. "Salaire de réserve, allocation chômage dégressive et revenu minimum d'insertion," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 346(1), pages 137-160.
    6. Card, David & Rothstein, Jesse, 2007. "Racial segregation and the black-white test score gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2158-2184, December.
    7. Koenig, Felix & Manning, Alan & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2014. "Reservation wages and the wage flexibility puzzle," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60613, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Pedro Portugal & John T. Addison, 2004. "Reservation Wages, Search Duration, and Accepted Wages in Europe," Working Papers w200413, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    9. repec:cep:cepdps:dp1319 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Christensen, Björn, 2003. "Anspruchslohn und Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland (Reservation wage and unemployment in Germany)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 573-598.
    11. Luttmer Erzo F.P., 2007. "Does the Minimum Wage Cause Inefficient Rationing?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, October.
    12. Ioannides, Yannis M., 2015. "Neighborhoods to nations via social interactions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 5-15.
    13. 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.
    14. Christensen, Björn, 2003. "Anspruchslohn und Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland (Reservation wage and unemployment in Germany)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 573-598.
    15. Christensen, Björn, 2001. "The Determinants of Reservation Wages in Germany Does a Motivation Gap Exist?," Kiel Working Papers 1024, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. Clemens, Michael A., 2017. "The Effect of Occupational Visas on Native Employment: Evidence from Labor Supply to Farm Jobs in the Great Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 10492, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Brock,W.A. & Durlauf,S.N., 2003. "Multinomial choice with social interactions," Working papers 1, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    18. Katarzyna Budnik, 2012. "Do those who stay work less? On the impact of emigration on the measured TFP in Poland," NBP Working Papers 113, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    19. Michael Clemens, 2013. "The Effect of Foreign Labor on Native Employment: A Job-Specific Approach and Application to North Carolina Farms- Working Paper 326," Working Papers 326, Center for Global Development.
    20. Prasanna Tambe & Xuan Ye & Peter Cappelli, 2020. "Paying to Program? Engineering Brand and High-Tech Wages," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 3010-3028, July.
    21. Felsenstein, Daniel & Fleischer, Aliza, 1999. "Capital Assistance and Small Firm Growth: Implications for Regional Economic Welfare," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa395, European Regional Science Association.

    More about this item

    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:taf:applec:v:35:y:2003:i:13:p:1469-1476. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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.