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Directed Search over the Life Cycle

Author

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  • Menzio, Guido
  • Telyukova, Irina A.
  • Visschers, Ludo

Abstract

We develop a life-cycle model of the labor market in which different worker-firm matches have different quality and the assignment of the right workers to the right firms is time consuming because of search and learning frictions. The rate at which workers move between unemployment, employment and across different firms is endogenous because search is directed and, hence, workers can choose whether to seek low-wage jobs that are easy to find or high-wage jobs that are hard to find. We calibrate our theory using data on labor market transitions aggregated across workers of different ages. We validate our theory by showing that it predicts quite well the pattern of labor market transitions for workers of different ages. Finally, we use our theory to decompose the age profiles of transition rates, wages and productivity into the effects of age variation in work-life expectancy, human capital and match quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Menzio, Guido & Telyukova, Irina A. & Visschers, Ludo, 2015. "Directed Search over the Life Cycle," SIRE Discussion Papers 2015-48, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    • Handle: RePEc:edn:sirdps:636
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Directed Search; Labor Reallocation; Lifecycle;
    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
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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