We show that in microdata, as well a search and matching model with flexible wages for new hires, wage rigidities of incumbent workers have substantial effects on separations unemployment volatility. Allowing an empirically relevant degree drives volatility the vacancies tightness to data. Thus, rigidity newly hired is not sufficient statistic determining effect macroeconomic outcomes. This fin...

Studies of the effect of government spending on unemployment are potentially confounded by reverse causality. To address the endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in a porkbarrel road-building program, and find that higher government expenditure on road-building substantially reduces local unemployment. JEL Codes: E24, E62, H30, H54,

Wage dispersion is generated in a sequential search environment through heterogeneity in firm productivity along with an individual wage-effort tradeoff. For a given degree of TFP dispersion, the framework can generate any amount of wage dispersion. Calibrated to generate realistic gains from trade, it is able to generate the kind of wage dispersion observed in data. JEL codes: E24, J64

The responsiveness of job creation to shocks is procyclical, while the destruction countercyclical. This new finding can be explained by a heterogeneous-firm model in which hiring costs lead lumpy employment adjustment. predicts that policies aim stimulate encouraging creation, such as subsidies, are significantly less effective recessions: these times when few firms near their thresholds and m...

We provide evidence of the stock market consumption wealth effect by using a local labor analysis. An increase in driven aggregate prices increases employment and payroll nontradable industries total, with no on tradable industries. In model geographic heterogeneity wealth, these responses imply an MPC 3.2 cents per year that 20 percent valuations, unless countered monetary policy, bill at leas...

We study the wealth distribution in Bewley economies with idiosyncratic capital income risk. We show analytically that under rather general conditions on the stochastic structure of the economy, a unique ergodic distribution of wealth displays a fat tail. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: E13; E21; E24

This paper uses job seekers’ elicited beliefs about finding to disentangle the sources of decline in job-finding rates by duration unemployment. We document that have strong predictive power for finding, but are not revised downward when remaining unemployed and subject optimistic bias, especially long-term unemployed. Leveraging beliefs, we find substantial heterogeneity with resulting dynamic...