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What are the determinants of hiring? The importance of product market demand and search frictions

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  • Stefan Eriksson
  • Karolina Stadin

Abstract

In this article, we study the importance of product market demand and search frictions for hiring. We use a search-matching model with imperfect competition in the product market to derive an equation for total hiring in a local labour market, and estimate it on Swedish panel data. If product markets are imperfectly competitive, product demand shocks should have a direct effect on employment for given levels of prices and wages. Our main finding is that product demand has such a direct effect on hiring. This highlights the importance of taking imperfect competition in the product market into account in studies of employment dynamics and hiring. We also find that, for given levels of prices, wages, and product demand, the number of unemployed workers in a local labour market has a positive effect on hiring, suggesting that search frictions matter. Quantitatively, product demand shocks seem to be more important for understanding the variation in hiring than shocks to the number of unemployed workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Eriksson & Karolina Stadin, 2017. "What are the determinants of hiring? The importance of product market demand and search frictions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(50), pages 5144-5165, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:49:y:2017:i:50:p:5144-5165
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2017.1302058
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gottfries, Nils & Mickelsson, Glenn & Stadin, Karolina, 2018. "Deep Dynamics," Working Paper Series 2018:10, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.

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