Employment and hours over the business cycle in a model with search frictions

This paper studies a labor market search-matching model with multi-worker firms to investigate how firms utilize employment and hours of work over the business cycle. The earnings function derived from intra-firm bargaining determines the costs of utilizing the two margins of labor adjustment. We calibrate the model for the Japanese labor market, in which fluctuations in hours of work account for 79 percent of the variations in total labor input. The model replicates much of the fluctuations in total labor input, employment, and hours per employee without wage rigidity even though the source of fluctuations is total factor productivity (TFP) alone. If hours of work are determined by bargaining, then the intensive margin makes the unemployment volatility puzzle much harder to resolve.