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The unemployment volatility puzzle: is wage stickiness the answer?

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  • Pissarides, Christopher

Abstract

I study the cyclical behavior of an equilibrium search model with endogenous job creation and destruction, with focus the model’s failure to match the observed cyclical volatility of unemployment.. Job creation in the model is influenced by wages in new matches. I summarize microeconometric evidence on wages in new matches and show that the key model elasticities are consistent with the evidence. Therefore explanations of the unemployment volatility puzzle have to preserve the cyclical volatility of wages. I discuss some extensions of the model that can increase cyclical unemployment volatility through mechanisms other than wage stickiness.

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  • Pissarides, Christopher, 2007. "The unemployment volatility puzzle: is wage stickiness the answer?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4460, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:4460
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wages; unemployment; wage stickiness; job creation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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