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A Real-Business-Cycle model with efficiency wages and a government sector: the case of Bulgaria

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  • Vasilev, Aleksandar

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the quantitative importance of e fficiency wages in explaining fluctuations in Bulgarian labor markets. This is done by augmenting an otherwise standard real business cycle model a la Long and Plosser (1983) with unobservable workers e ort by employers and wage contracts as in Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984), as well as a detailed government sector. This imperfection in labor markets introduces a strong propagation mechanism that allows the model to capture the business cycles in Bulgaria better than earlier models. The model performs well vis-a-vis data, especially along the labor market dimension, and in addition dominates the market-clearing labor market framework featured in the standard RBC model, e.g Vasilev (2009).

Suggested Citation

  • Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2017. "A Real-Business-Cycle model with efficiency wages and a government sector: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 4, pages 359-377.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:170575
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2015. "Welfare gains from the adoption of proportional taxation in a general-equilibrium model with a grey economy: the case of Bulgaria's 2008 flat tax reform," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 169-185.
    2. Craig Burnside & Martin S. Eichenbaum & Jonas D. M. Fisher, 1999. "Fiscal shocks in an efficiency wage model," Working Paper Series WP-99-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
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    6. Michelle Alexopoulos, 2003. "Growth and unemployment in a shirking efficiency wage model," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(3), pages 728-746, August.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    general equilibrium; shirking; efficiency wages; unemployment; Bulgaria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

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