Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Search friction'

La tesi è formata da due capitoli su dinamica della distribuzione delle imprese e shock aggregati. Usando un modello ad imprese eterogenee, la tesi studia le fluttuazioni di ciclo economico dovute a shock alla tecnologia ed ai costi in entrata.
This dissertation collects two essays on firm size dynamics and aggregate shocks. By employing a model with heterogeneous firms, search frictions and endogenous entry/exit we investigate the business cycle dynamics of the firm size distribution by looking at entry cost and technology shocks. The thesis is divided into two chapters.\\ The first chapter explores how an increase in entry costs affects the size of new entrants and the concentration of employment according to firm size, along with its effects on macro-variables such as unemployment and the exit rate. To this aim we use a BVAR model to estimate the response of such variables to an entry cost shock, then we develop a heterogeneous-firm model with search frictions and endogenous entry/exit dynamics calibrated on data from Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) database to address our empirical results.\\ We find that positive entry cost shocks increase the average size of entrants and move employment shares toward the largest firms. These results reveal the role of entry costs' fluctuations in explaining the dynamics at business cycle horizons of both firm and employment share distributions according to size.\\ The second chapter perturbed the model with a technology shock to replicate the long-run differential of job destruction due to exit between small and large firms and its empirical response to technology shocks (estimated by a BVAR). Contrary to frameworks with \textit{exogenous} exit, the model is able to account for the volatility of exit and the differential of job destruction due to exit between small and large firms conditional to the technology shock. Moreover we find that not only entry but also exit is a viable amplification channel for the response of unemployment to the shock.\\

In this dissertation, I investigate how government policies influence an individual's decision to search for and accept a job and/or crime opportunity. Chapter 1 looks at how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. The purpose is to predict the effects of a successful job placement program. An on-the-job search model with crime is used to model criminal behavior, derive the estimation method and analyze different types of policies. The results show the unemployed are incarcerated twice as fast as the employed and take on average four and a half months to find a job. Combining these results, it is demonstrated that reducing the average unemployment spell of criminals by two months reduces crime and recidivism by more than five percent. Chapter 2 incorporates crime into a search and matching model of the labor market. All workers, irrespective of their labor force status can commit crimes and the employment contract is determined optimally. The model is used to study, analytically and quantitatively, the effects of various labor market and crime policies such as unemployment insurance, hiring subsidies and the duration of jail sentences. For example, wage subsidies reduce unemployment, the crime rates of employed and unemployed workers, and improve society's welfare. Chapter 3 investigates a market where wholesalers search for retailers and retailers search for consumers. I show how the timing, targets and types of anti-drug policies matter. For instance, supply falls if the likelihood of apprehension rises when a network is established. Alternatively, if the cost of apprehension rises for wholesale dealers when a network is searching for consumers, then revenue sharing is distorted. Such a distortion will increase retail profits and aggregate supply. As an application, the model provides an alternative explanation for why the United States cocaine market saw rising consumption and falling prices during the 1980's. Specifically, the ``War on Drugs" distorted the cocaine market and increased supply.

The financial crisis of 2008 was characterized by disruptions in credit markets and sharp rises in unemployment. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the interaction of credit and labour markets. The first chapter studies the impact of credit frictions on labour demand given that the labour market is frictionless. The second chapter introduces search and matching to the labour market and studies the interaction between the two types of frictions. The third chapter investigates wages determined by surplus sharing between firms and workers in the environment with search and credit frictions. In Chapter 1 I develop a partial equilibrium model where homogenous firms face credit frictions in the form of collateral constraints. As a result of these frictions firms' demand for capital depends on their net worth. Firms hire workers in the frictionless labour market with an upward-sloping labour supply curve. The model generates a large, although short-lived, response of capital demand to a negative productivity shock. Through complementarity of factors of production the decrease in capital affects employment and wages. As a result of a one standard deviation negative productivity shock employment falls by around 0.65% and wages fall by around 1.3% as opposed to 0.11% and 0.25%, respectively, in the first-best economy. I also find that changing capital and labour supply elasticities have different implications in the presence of credit frictions compared to the first-best economy. Chapter 2 extends Chapter 1 by introducing search frictions to the labour side of the economy. On one hand, when buying capital firms have to deal with the credit frictions outlined above. On the other hand, when hiring workers they face standard search and matching frictions. I then study the interaction of the two frictions. Credit frictions affect labour demand through complementarity of capital and labour. Search frictions influence capital demand through wages: When wages are only partially flexible, the decline in firms' net worth is larger, and the resulting fall in capital is larger as well. I also find that the response of wages to wage flexibility is non-monotonic in the presence of credit frictions. This could potentially explain why we see wages fall little in data. In Chapter 3 I use a model of search and credit frictions developed in Chapter 2 to investigate wages determined by surplus sharing in such environment. I find that credit frictions affect the surplus-sharing mechanism in such a way that they increase the worker's effective bargaining power. That is, the firm and the worker negotiate wages as if the worker had a higher bargaining power. This is due to the fact that under search and credit frictions the firm values workers more that under pure search frictions because output they produce increases the firm's net worth. However, the effective worker's bargaining power appears to be endogenous to the firm's capital holdings and the number of employees. The more capital the firm has, the less the firm is financially constrained, and the lower wages its workers are able to extract. Due to endogeneity of the worker's effective bargaining power, the effect of credit frictions on wages is ambiguous.

The present dissertation evaluates specific labour market policies and investigates individual saving behaviour in economies characterized by search and matching frictions in the labour market. The first chapter investigates the optimality of state provided unemployment insurance in a search theoretic framework with saving and borrowing constraints. The model is solved numerically, since an analytic solution is not possible, and then calibrated using features of the US economy. The results demonstrate that when individuals have access to saving, the importance of unemployment benefits provision diminishes significantly. Ex post heterogeneity among agents, matters however. Individuals that were unlucky not to accumulate enough assets to buffer the unemployment risk, would still prefer to receive non-trivial amounts of state provided benefits during their unemployment spell. The second chapter of the thesis is concerned with the interaction between saving, consumption and search. It starts by documenting that the excess sensitivity of consumption growth to lagged labor income growth conceals a negative sensitivity of consumption growth to lagged unemployment growth. To understand this empirical regularity, we embed search frictions in a heterogeneous agent, precautionary savings model and study the implications for unemployment and consumption dynamics both at the microeconomic and macroeconomic level. The third and final chapter employs a standard search and matching model with no saving, in order to study the effects of firing taxes on the job destruction rate, when probation period - or temporary contract - policies are implemented. It is shown that, contrary to conventional wisdom, firing taxes can amplify the job turnover rate by providing incentives to destroy surviving matches at the end of the probation period. Moreover, low skill workers are shown to be more severely affected while wage inequality across different productivity groups may increase.

This thesis consists of three independent research projects aimed at gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying labor markets. The unifying themes of the thesis are the theoretical modeling and estimation approaches, which are similar in all three chapters. In the first chapter, co-authored with Helene Turon and Fabien Postel-Vi nay, we develop and estimate a structural model that incorporates a sizable public sector in a labor market with search frictions. The wage distribution and the employment rate in the public sector are taken as exogenous policy parameters. The model is estimated on British data. We use the model to simulate the impact of various counterfactual public sector wage and employment policies. The next chapter, co-authored with Daniel Borowczyk-Martins and Linas Tarasonis, assesses racial prejudice as a source to explain employment and wage differentials between white and black workers. We estimate the model with US data using methods of indirect inference. Finally, I develop and estimate a general equilibrium model with the option of taking up self-employment. The model incorporates self-employed workers, some of whom hire paid employees, in an equilibrium model of the labor market. Employment rates and earnings distributions are determined endogenously and are estimated to match their empirical counterparts. The model is estimated using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

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In this thesis I empirically investigate the role of non-price related search frictions in the access to finance by firms. The focus is on the relationship between these factors and how their variation in time can affect access to finance. The study uses a rich dataset of small, medium and large firms from 109 countries, mostly of them emerging economies, and of country related search friction indicators. Results show that banking outreach indicators and informational infrastructure are strongly associated with access to finance. The percentage of internet users and its variation are the most relevant of the informational variables, especially for small and medium enterprises. For large firms, the changes in fixed phone subscriptions and in the proportion of branches by population are the most relevant frictions. Results shed light on the already identifiable role of internet on financial inclusion of SMEs, and on the difference search frictions make in the access to finance depending on firm’s size.
Esta dissertação investiga empiricamente o papel das fricções de busca não relacionadas a preços no acesso a financiamento por empresas. O foco está na relação entre elas, bem como no efeito das mudanças nesses indicadores nos níveis de acesso a financiamento. O estudo usa um rico conjunto de dados de pequenas, médias e grandes empresas de 109 países, a maioria países em desenvolvimento, e de indicadores de fricção de busca por país. Os resultados mostram que os indicadores de alcance bancário e de infraestrutura informacional estão fortemente associados ao acesso a financiamento. A porcentagem de usuários da internet e a sua variação são as mais relevantes dentre as variáveis informacionais, especialmente para pequenas e médias empresas. Para as grandes empresas, as variações no número de assinaturas de telefonia fixa e na proporção de agências bancárias pela população são mais relevantes. Os resultados esclarecem o papel já identificável da internet na inclusão financeira de PMEs e a diferença que as fricções de busca fazem no acesso a financiamento dependendo do tamanho da empresa.

Esta tesis consta de tres capítulos en donde analizo mercados con fricciones. En los dos primeros capítulos, estas fricciones surgen debido a la carencia información completa acerca de los precios por parte de los consumidores. Puntualmente, en el primer capítulo, se estudia como se desarrolla la competición de precio multiproducto en este tipo de ambiente. Se encuentra que la búsqueda por precios bajos por parte de los consumidores conlleva a que las firmas fijen los precios de los productos complementarios de manera correlativamente inversa. De esta manera, las firmas buscan incrementar sus ganancias valiéndose de aquellos consumidores que no investigan lo suficiente. En el siguiente capítulo se analiza cuales son los efectos que genera la búsqueda de mejores precios en la determinación de los mismos cuando las firmas tienen diferentes costos marginales. Se demuestra que firmas con diferentes estructuras de costos no pueden fijar los mismos precios en equilibrio. Debido a esto, mayores costos conllevan a mayores precios promedios. Finalmente, en el tercer capítulo, las fricciones emergen debido a que las firmas no tienen acceso a todos los mercados. Se analiza la competición en cantidades que se desarrolla luego de la etapa de inversión en capacidad productiva. Se demuestra que la capacidad productiva es mayor que la generada en un modelo Cournot estándar debido los incentivos pro-competitivos presentes en los mercados fragmentados.
This thesis consists of three chapters analyzing markets with frictions. In the first two chapters frictions result from consumers not knowing all the prices and searching for them. The first chapter studies multiproduct price competition in this environment. It finds that consumer search induces firms to negatively correlate prices of complements in order to rip-off consumers who do not search enough. The second chapter studies the effects of consumer search on price competition when firms have different marginal costs. It demonstrates that firms with different costs cannot charge common prices in equilibrium. Due to this, the higher are the costs the higher are the average prices charged by firms. In the third chapter frictions emerge because firms do not have access to all the markets. It analyzes quantity competition following a capacity investment stage to show that equilibrium capacity is larger than in a standard Cournot model because of pro-competitive incentives in fragmented markets.

This thesis consists of three theoretical chapters, all related to the response of unemployment to shocks and the role of active and passive labour market policies. Throughout the thesis, unemployment is assumed to evolve as a result of the uncoordinated nature of the labour market along the lines outlined in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides equilibrium search and matching model. Chapter 2 examines the effects of employment policies on vacancy creation and allocation decisions of firms and unemployment across workers with different skills. We develop a partial equilibrium model with heterogeneous high- and low-tech jobs and with skilled and unskilled workers, which we motivate by the stark evidence on the incidence of cross-skill employment (which crowds out unskilled workers, e.g. evidence for the US, the UK and the EU put these at 58%, 32%, and 35%, respectively). We show that certain employment protection policies could, in fact, lead to a reduction in job creation and might alter the allocation of vacancies across low- and high-tech job type. We find that: (i) skilled workers benefit while unskilled workers experience high jobless rate; (ii) policy effects differ when they are skill-specific; (ii) stricter policies can have more severe consequences; and (iv) vacancy creation subsidy can play a key role in reducing unemployment across worker type as well as alleviating the cross-skill crowding out of jobs. Against conventional wisdom, we demonstrate that severance compensation can have a ‘real’ effect on job creation decision, provided there is some degree of strictness in its enforcement. Motivated by the extensive use of fiscal stimulus policies and labour market reforms during the last economic crisis, in Chapter 3 we study the implications of labour market regulations in driving the sensitivity of an economy to fiscal spending shocks, in a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with job search frictions. We demonstrate that less rigidity in the labour market reduces the impact of fiscal demand shock on job creation and employment, both at extensive and intensive margins, whereas higher rigidity amplifies it. We also establish that the extent to which government spending promotes economic activity, job creation and employment depends on the degree of substitutability between private and public consumption. Higher substitutability dampens economic activity and reduces the sizes of output and employment multipliers. Labour market-oriented fiscal spending is found to be the most potent policy instruments for promoting employment – especially in the presence of high labour market rigidities. Finally, in Chapter 4, we study how openness to international trade and capital mobility and their interactions with labour market policies affect the behaviour of an economy, in particular with respect to its unemployment level. We show that the degree of openness to international capital flow is crucial for understanding the response of unemployment to different shocks. In isolation, by raising the incentive to invest, a reduction in capital mobility barriers leads to lower unemployment, both in the long-run and the dynamic short-run. With limited restrictions to capital movement, unemployment responds faster and with greater magnitude to a domestic productivity shock, and this is further enhanced the more the economy is open to international trade. A striking finding of this study is that while a higher degree of capital mobility enhances the adjustment of unemployment in response to a domestic productivity shock, it dampens its adjustment to a foreign demand shock. By contrast, higher openness to international trade enhances the adjustment effects of both shocks on unemployment. Finally, we find that heterogeneity in the welfare state systems in the EU can generate substantial differentials in the adjustment of unemployment to various shocks.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that aim to build a framework which can be used to study interactions between the labour market and macroeconomic dynamics. To achieve this, we reformulate a standard New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to include search and matching frictions in the labour market and heterogeneity in price and wage stickiness. The first chapter, coauthored with Professor Engin Kara, builds a real business cycle model with labour search frictions and heterogeneity in wage stickiness. Shimer’s (2005) critique on labour search models, that it cannot explain observed unemployment movements, reignited a long-standing debate on unemployment fluctuations and wage determination. Gertler and Trigari (2009) introduce wage stickiness to the model to match unemployment volatility, while Pissarides (2009) finds this modification not satisfactory, citing evidence on high wage cyclicality. We find heterogeneity in wage stickiness in microdata on wages. Our model, which reflects this heterogeneity, matches the data better than its one sector alternatives. The second chapter, coauthored with Professor Engin Kara, studies output dynamics in New Keynesian models with the standard labour market and heterogeneity in price stickiness. We analytically and numerically show that these models can reproduce a hump-shaped output response to persistent monetary shocks, which is a key feature of monetary transmission mechanism. The version of models without heterogeneity cannot generate a hump. Flexible prices in models with heterogeneity play a crucial role, by generating inertia to price-setting and output. The third chapter studies how the labour search frictions affect output dynamics in New Keynesian models, when combined with heterogeneity in nominal rigidities. Long-term employment relationship, that arises under search and matching framework, makes marginal costs history dependent. We show that this history dependence generates inertia in the model. Heterogeneity in nominal rigidities significantly reinforces this inertia, resulting in a hump-shaped output response to persistent monetary shocks. The model without the search frictions cannot replicate a hump even when monetary shocks are persistent, when wages are sticky.

Cette thèse de doctorat étudie, dans un cadre théorique, l’incidence des politiques fiscales environnementales au regard de l’hétérogénéité des travailleurs. Elle analyse la construction de politiques fiscales en fonction de trois objectifs : réduire les émissions de pollution, améliorer l’efficacité, et réduire les inégalités. Cette thèse est constituée d’une introduction et de trois chapitres (articles académiques) qui chacun décline cette question sous différents aspects. Le premier chapitre s’intéresse aux choix éducatifs et analyse l’impact des taxes environnementales sur l’efficacité et l’équité au travers ces choix d’éducation. Le second chapitre se concentre sur l’impact des taxes environnementales dans un contexte d’imperfection du marché du travail (chômage involontaire frictionnel). Le troisième chapitre est consacré aux disparités régionales en matière de salaire, d’emploi et de préférence pour les biens polluants
This Ph.D. dissertation studies the incidence of environmental taxation between heterogeneous workers. In a theoretical framework, it analyses the design of environmental fiscal policy in regards with three competing goals : reducing emissions, improving economic efficiency, and limiting economic inequality. It consists of an introduction and three chapters (essays), each of them focusing on a different aspect of the problem. The first chapter uses a model with endogenous education and looks at how environmental taxation can affect efficiency and equity through its effects on educational choices. The second chapter focuses on the impact of green taxes on inequalities and unemployment using a search-friction model. The third one deals with regional disparities in regards with unemployment, wages and preferences

In many procurement auctions, entrants determine whether to participate in auctions accounting for their roles of intermediaries who search for the best (or the cheapest) input suppliers. We build on a procurement auction model with entry, combining with intermediary search for suppliers. The novel feature is that costs of bidders are endogenously determined by suppliers who strategically charge input prices. We show the existence of an equilibrium with price dispersion for inputs, generating cost heterogeneity among bidders. Interestingly, the procurement cost may rise as the number of potential bidders increases. (author's abstract)
Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Dans les pays en voie de développement, les politiques visent à augmenter les opportunités d'emploi afin d'élever les revenus et les niveaux de vie des populations. Parmi ces pays, les pays arabes de la région MENA ont récemment connu une vague de soulèvement populaire, faisant suite aux accroissements de la pauvreté, des inégalités et de l'exclusion, résultats des faibles performances du marché du travail. Comme l'analyse des flux est devenu l'outil de base de l'économie du travail moderne, cette thèse propose d'expliquer le fonctionnement de ces marchés du travail assez spécifiques, particulièrement ceux de l'Egypte et de la Jordanie, en utilisant la théorie de la recherche d'emploi. Elle se penche sur l'analyse des créations et destructions d'emploi ainsi que des mobilités entre emplois. Elle montre que ces marchés sont très rigides. L'impact de l'introduction des réformes structurelles, visant à flexibiliser l'emploi est ensuite discuté de manière empirique ainsi que théorique. Les résultats montrent que la baisse des coûts de licenciement en Egypte a augmenté significativement les destructions d'emploi, mais n'a eu aucun impact sur les créations. Cet échec partiel de la réforme est un paradoxe empirique, qui est interprété théoriquement par un effet d'éviction dû à l'augmentation du coût de la corruption ou/et à l'augmentation des salaires du secteur public. Une extension originale du modèle théorique de Mortensen-Pissarides est alors développée, permettant l'existence de trois secteurs, public, privé formel et privée informel. Ce cadre rend compte de la nature particulière des pays en voie de développement. Pour examiner la qualité des emplois et pour étudier les avancements dans l'échelle des salaires, une estimation structurelle du modèle de Burdett-Mortensen est ensuite proposée. Elle permet d'étudier et mesurer les frictions d'appariement sur les marchés du travail égyptien et jordanien. Les paramètres estimés sont extrêmement faibles, soulignant la forte rigidité de ces marchés. Le marché du travail jordanien s'avère, par contre, être plus flexible que l'égyptien. Compte tenu de la non-disponibilité de données de panels annuelles dans ces pays, il est montré que des données de panel rétrospectives peuvent être utilisées, pour étudier les transitions de court terme sur ces marchés du travail. Ces données de panel sont par contre soumises à un biais de mémoire. Une méthode originale de correction du biais de mémoire est donc proposée et développée. Elle vise à corriger les transitions à la fois à un niveau macro, en utilisant une méthode de moments simulés, ainsi qu'au niveau micro, en construisant des matrices de poids
Policy prescriptions for poor developing countries struggle to expand employment opportunities toraise their income levels. Among these are the MENA Arab countries that have recently experiencedan unprecedented tide of popular uprisings following the rising poverty, inequality and exclusion, muchof which is related to the labor market. Since the flow approach to labor markets has become the basic toolbox to modern labor economics, this thesis has at its central insight explaining the functioning ofthose specific labor markets, particularly the Egyptian and Jordanian, using the search equilibrium theory. It looks at analyzing job accession, separations and mobility trends. Overall, evidence of highlevels of rigidity is revealed. The impact of introducing flexible employment protection regulations in these rigid markets is then discussed both empirically and theoretically. Findings show that lowering firing costs in Egypt increased significantly the job separations, but had no impact on job creations.This partial failure of the liberalization reform is interpreted theoretically by a crowding out effect due to increased corruption set up costs or increased public sector wages. A novel theoretical matching model a la Mortensen Pissarides is developped allowing for the existence of public, formal private and informal private sectors, reflecting the particular nature of developing countries. Workers’ movements up the job ladder is then explored through a structural estimation of the frictional parameters in a job search model a la Burdett Mortensen. These markets are found to have very high levels of search frictions especially among the young workers. Given the non-availability of panel data to study labor market flows, longitudinal retrospective panel datasets are extracted from the Egypt and Jordan Labor Market Panel Surveys. These panels are then compared to available contemporaneous crosssectional information, showing that they suffer from recall and design measurement erros. An original methodology is therefore proposed and developped to correct the biased labor market transitionsboth on the aggregate macro-level, using a Simulated Method of Moments (SMM), as well as on themicro-individual transaction level, using constructed micro-data weights

This thesis studies the inability of search models to match both observed labor market flows and the empirical wage distribution. I show that a known feature of the labor market, that unemployment hurts workers' wages, has an important effect on workers' search behavior, and explains why we observe that similar workers are paid different wages. The first chapter reviews the relevant literature. I begin by describing the findings in Hornstein, Krusell and Violante (2011) that baseline search models struggle to generate significant wage dispersion, the so-called frictional wage dispersion puzzle. Further, search models face a trade-off between matching the cross-sectional wage distribution and matching the cyclical volatility of unemployment and vacancies. The chapter reviews the unemployment volatility puzzle and explains this trade-off. Given that the thesis introduces the loss of human capital during unemployment, the chapter ends with a review of the related empirical literature. Chapter 2 studies wage dispersion among identical workers in a random matching search model in which workers lose human capital during unemployment. Wage dispersion increases, as workers accept lower wages to avoid long unemployment spells. I show that the model is an important improvement over baseline search models. The model with unemployment history explains between a third and half of the observed residual wage dispersion. In Chapter 3 I add on-the-job search to the model with unemployment history. Workers accept lower wages because they keep the option of searching for better paying jobs. Wage dispersion increases significantly. The model accounts for all of the residual wage dispersion. The model also generates substantial wage dispersion even for high values of non-market time. The chapter thus addresses the trade-off between explaining frictional wage dispersion and the cyclical behavior of unemployment.

Ce travail de doctorat explore les conséquences des activités de recherche d’emploi sur trois aspects de l’économie : la qualité des emplois à travers l’appariement entre les travailleurs et les entreprises, les contrastes géographiques en matière de chômage, et la croissance des salaires au cours de la vie
This PhD dissertation explores the consequences of search activities on three dimensions of the economy: the quality of jobs through the matching between workers and firms, the geographical disparities in unemployment, and the wage growth over the life cycle through job mobility

Durant la grande récession, les interactions entre fluctuations du prix de l’immobilier, du travail et de l’entrée des firmes sur le marché des biens, ont mis en avant l’existence de relations étroites entre ces marchés. Le but de cette thèse est de mettre en lumière les interactions entre le marché du travail et le marché des biens ainsi que des cycles financiers, en utilisant les récents progrès des modèles DSGE. Dans le premier chapitre, nous avons trouvé un fort rôle joué par la création de firmes dans l’amplification des dynamiques de l’emploi. En introduisant le mécanisme du modèle de Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides sur le marché du travail, nous avons pu étudier sous un nouvel angle les fluctuations du taux de marge des firmes. Comparé aux travaux théoriques utilisant un marché du travail sans frictions, nous avons trouvé un taux de marge moins contracyclique dû au coût marginal acyclique d’un modèle avec frictions. De plus, le rôle accordé à la création de firmes dans la détermination du taux de marge est moins important que dans les papiers précédents. Dans le second chapitre, nous avons lié la capacité d’endettement des ménages avec leur situation sur le marché de l’emploi. Grâce à cette microfondation, les nouveaux arrivants sur le marché du travail entrainent un plus haut niveau de dette immobilière tandis que ceux qui perdent leurs emplois sont exclus du marché du crédit. En conséquence, le ratio LTV devient endogène et répond de manière procyclique aux fluctuations de l’emploi. Nous avons montré que cette modélisation était empiriquement fondée et résout les anomalies d'une contrainte de crédit standard. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous avons étendu l’analyse précédemment effectuée en intégrant des firmes qui s’endettent dans le but d’obtenir un cycle financier plus complet. Le premier résultat est qu’une contrainte de crédit pour les firmes intégrant à la fois les biens immobiliers, le capital et la masse salariale permet de mieux rendre compte des fluctuations sur le marché du travail comparativement aux contraintes n’intégrant qu’une partie de ces trois composantes. Le second résultat met en évidence le rôle des fluctuations immobilières et du crédit sur l’emploi. Les deux derniers chapitres ont d’importantes implications pour les politiques économiques. Une réforme structurelle du marché du travail visant à le déréguler entraine une forte hausse de la dette immobilière pour les ménages ainsi que du prix de l’immobilier et une augmentation moindre de la dette des firmes. Notre approche révèle qu’une politique macroprudentielle visant à restreindre la capacité d’emprunt des ménages conduit à des effets positifs à long terme pour l’économie tout en limitant les effets sur le marché immobilier (dette et prix). A l’inverse, une politique macroprudentielle visant à réduire l’emprunt des entreprises conduit à l’effet inverse avec des effets négatifs à long terme pour l’économie
During the Great Recession, the interactions between housing, labor and entry highlight the existence of narrow propagation channels between these markets. The aim of this thesis is to shed a light on labor market interactions with firm entry and financial business cycles, by building on the recent theoretical and empirical of DSGE models. In the first chapter, we have found evidence of the key role of the net entry as an amplifying mechanism for employment dynamics. Introducing search and matching frictions, we have studied from a new perspective the cyclicality of the mark-up compared to previous researches that use Walrasian labor market. We found a less countercyclical markup due to the acyclical aspect of the marginal cost in the DMP framework and a reduced role according to firm's entry in the cyclicality of the markup. In the second chapter, we have linked the borrowing capacity of households to their employment situation on the labor market. With this new microfoundation of the collateral constraint, new matches on the labor market translate into more mortgages, while separation induces an exclusion from financial markets for jobseekers. As a result, the LTV becomes endogenous by responding procyclically to employment fluctuations. We have shown that this device is empirically relevant and solves the anomalies of the standard collateral constraint. In the last chapter, we extend the analysis developed in the previous one by integrating collateral constrained firms in order to have a more complete financial business cycle. The first result is that an entrepreneur collateral constraint integrating capital, real commercial estate and wage bill in advance is empirically relevant compared to the collateral literature associated to the labor market which does not consider these three assets. The second finding is the role of the housing price and credit squeezes in the rise of the unemployment rate during the Great Recession. The last two chapters have important implications for economic policy. A structural deregulation reform in the labor market induces a significant rise in the debt level for households and housing price, combined with a substantial rise of firm debt. Our approach allows us to reveal that a macroprudential policy aiming to tighten the LTV ratio for household borrowers has positive effects in the long run for output and employment, while tightening LTV ratios for entrepreneurs leads to the opposite effect

L'objectif sous-jacent aux trois chapitres qui composent cette thèse est la compréhension du fonctionnement du marché du travail, afin d'établir un diagnostic quant au rôle de régulation potentiel d'une autorité publique dans ce marché. Dans le premier chapitre, j'analyse, d'un point de vue purement "positif", la capacité du modèle avec frictions d'appariement à répliquer les fluctuations de court terme de variables du marché du travail aux États-Unis. Je propose une nouvelle stratégie de calibration, dans le cadre d'analyse est celui d'un modèle de fluctuations avec rigidité de prix. Dans le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec F. Langot), nous étudions les déterminants des évolutions de l'offre de travail sur les cinquante dernières années. L'évolution du coin fiscal, ainsi que de deux variables reflétant le cadre institutionnel (la générosité du revenu en cas de "non-emploi" et le pouvoir de négociation des travailleurs), permettent d'expliquer les différentes trajectoires du taux d'emploi et des heures travaillées observées aux États-Unis et dans trois économies européennes (France, Allemagne et Royaume-Uni). Dans le troisième chapitre, j'analyse la performance de deux systèmes alternatifs de sécurité sociale, dans le cadre d'un modèle avec agents hétérogènes en termes de richesse. Les agents sont soumis à un risque de chômage, et le planificateur peut fournir de l'assurance à travers un système fiscal redistributif, basé sur une taxe progressive et/ou l'assurance chômage. Le système fiscal progressif est supérieur, en termes de bien-être agrégé, à l'assurance fournie à travers des allocations chômage, à travers son effet sur le fonctionnement du marché du travail
The objective underlying the three chapters of this thesis is the understanding of the functioning of the labor market to make a diagnosis about the potential regulatory role of a public authority in this market. ln the first chapter, I analyze, from a purely "positive" point of view, the ability of the model with search and matching frictions to reproduce short-term fluctuations of labor market variables in the United States. I propose a new calibration strategy, within a general equilibrium framework with sticky prices. In the second chapter (co-written with F. Langot), we study the determinants of changes in the labor supply over the last fifty years. Changes in the tax wedge, and two variables reflecting the institutional framework (the generosity of income in case of "non-employment" and workers' bargaining power), can explain the different trajectories of the rate employment and hours worked observed in the United States and three European economies (France, Germany and the United Kingdom). ln the third chapter, I analyze the performance of two alternative systems of social security, within the framework of a model with heterogeneous agents in terms of wealth. The agents are subject to a risk of unemployment, and the planner can provide insurance through a redistibutive tax system, based on a progressive tax and / or unemployment insurance. The progressive tax system is superior in terms of aggregate welfare to the insurance provided through unemployment benefits, through its effect on the functioning of the labor market

We’re often warned that the internet will hasten the dating apocalypse. The internet (it is posited) is depriving us of the elusive in-person magic, and modern courtship is now little more than love at first byte. There remains uncertainty, however, about what the independent impact of the internet on the dating market has been. Similar to the internet, the telephone also changed the way we communicate, but its effect on the dating market was mostly complementary to the 'traditional' ways of meeting – i.e. calling your school crush at home. So the question remains: Is the effect of the internet on the dating market complementary (adding your school crush on Facebook) or substitutionary (matching with a stranger on Tinder)? Is the internet any better than the telephone? If all that was known about a random couple is that they met after 2015, I find that there is a 1 in 3 chance that the couple met as strangers online. Lesbian couples who met after 2015 have a 1 in 2 chance of meeting online, whereas gay male couples have a 63% probability of meeting online as strangers. This increased likelihood of same-sex couples meeting online (as opposed to heterosexual couples) confirms the thin-market hypothesis. The key value proposition of the internet is that it reduces search frictions in the dating market – effectively making it easier for individuals to seek out their optimal matching. I find that the internet is primarily displacing only ‘social circles’ as a dating venue – the probability of meeting partners in public or at institutions (like college) is unchanged. In other words – individuals are essentially replacing their friends with Wi-Fi when it comes to mate search.

Cette thèse explore l'impact de l'information sur comportement de recherche d'emploi et la demande pour les formations professionnelles.Le premier chapitre évalue l'impact du site internet Bob Emploi, qui vise à délivrer de l'information aux demandeurs d'emploi à propos du marché du travail. Les résultats indiquent qu'il n'y a aucun impact sur l'effort de recherche des demandeurs d'emploi et le prérimètre géographique et sectoriel de la recherche. Cependant, les demandeurs d'emploi ayant recours à Bob Emploi mobilisent davantage leur réseau personnel ainsi que les services publics de l'emploi. Enfin, il n'y a aucun effet sur le bien-être et sur le retour à l’emploi.Le deuxième chapitre examine le rôle de l'information sur l’entrée en formation professionnelle. Les résultats indiquent que la réception d'un email avec un message mettant l'accent sur les opportunités de retour à l’emploi après la formation fait plus que doubler la probabilité que les demandeurs d'emploi rappellent le centre de formation. Cependant, les taux d’appel sont faibles en valeur absolue (moins de 1%) et il n'y a aucun impact sur l’inscription en formation. Nos résultats suggèrent que l’impact détecté sur les appels est davantage dû à l'augmentation de l'importance accordé aux informations sur la formation plutôt qu’à la mise à jour des croyances des demandeurs d'emploi.Enfin, le troisième chapitre étudie également la demande pour la formation professionnelle, mais prend en compte les contraintes comportementales. Distinguant les croyances ``externes'' (sur le monde) et les croyances ``internes'' (sur soi-même), les résultats montrent que les demandeurs d'emploi subissent des contraintes financières les empêchant de rejoindre un programme de formation, et qu'ils sous-estiment la proportion de formations disponibles qui sont financées. Les obstacles internes liés à l'auto-efficacité, aux preferences inter-temporelles, à l'estime de soi et à la capacite d’organisation sont mentionnés à part égale par les demandeurs d'emploi indiquant avoit des obstacles internes à l'inscription en formation. À partir de ce diagnostic, la dernière partie est consacrée au design d'un essai randomisé contrôlé, avec des interventions reposant sur la transmission d'informations via des cours en ligne, et des sessions interactives par groupes de demandeurs d'emploi. Ces cours visent à cibler les croyances externes, internes, ou les deux simultanément
My dissertation examines the impact of information on job search behavior and demand for vocational training.The first chapter evaluates of the impact of the website Bob Emploi, which aims at delivering news to jobseekers about the labour market. Results indicate that there is no impact on jobseekers' search effort and search scope. However, job seekers using the website are more likely to rely on personal networks and to use resources provided by public employment services. Finally, there is no effect on self-reported well-being and on employment.The second chapter focuses on the role of information about training on the enrollment rate.Results indicate that receiving an email with a message emphasizing training returns in terms of employment more than doubles the likelihood that job seekers call back the training center. However, callback rates are low in absolute value (less than one percent) and there is no impact on enrollment. Our results suggest that the effects on callbacks are driven by increasing salience of basic information about training rather than by belief updating.Finally, the third chapter focuses on the demand for vocational training as well, but takes into account behavioural constraints. Distinguishing between ``external'' beliefs (about the world) and ``internal'' beliefs (about the self), results show that jobseekers experience financial constraints preventing them from joining a training program, and that they underestimate the proportion of subsidized programs available to them. Obstacles related either to self-efficacy, self control, self esteem and executive function are equally mentioned among jobseekers reporting internal barriers in training enrollment. In light of this diagnosis, the last part is dedicated to the design for a random control trial, with interventions relying on the delivery of information through app-base courses, and interactive sessions involving groups of jobseekers. Theses courses aim at targeting either external or internal beliefs, or both of them simultaneously

Diese Doktorarbeit besteht aus drei Aufsätzen, in welchen die Reaktion von Finanzinstitutionen auf Geldpolitik analysiert wird. In dem ersten Aufsatz finde ich anhand eines Bayesian VAR, dass eine Erhöhung des Leitzinses zu einer zusätzlichen Kreditvergabe in Nichtbanken (NBFI) führt. Banken verleihen wie bereits bekannt weniger. Der Grund für die gegensätzliche Bewegung liegt in der unterschiedliche Art der Finanzierung. Dieser Befund legt nahe, dass die Existenz von NBFI die Volatilität der aggregierten Kreditvergabe zu geldpolitischen Schocks verringern könnte. Zusätzlich bietet die Analyse einen Erklärungsansatz für die Beobachtung, dass sich die Kreditvergabe seit der Finanzkrise stockend entwickelt hat. Im zweiten Aufsatz knüpfe ich an diese empirische Untersuchung an, indem ich ein theoretisches Modell mit unterschiedlichen Arten von Firmenfinanzierung entwerfe. Haushalte müssen sich zwischen festverzinsichlichen und erfolgsbedingten Sparmöglichkeiten entscheiden. Auf Grundlage des Modells von Bernanke, Gertler und Gilchrist (1999) mikrofundiere ich die Entscheidung über Unternehmensgründung in Form von Eigenkapitalinvestitionen. Im dritten Aufsatz entwickele ich ein geschätztes DSGE Modell mit Finanzierungsfriktionen, welches in der Lage ist, die empirischen Ergebnisse zu replizieren. Ich untersuche, wie sich die Regulierung von Schattenbanken auf eine Volkswirtschaft am ZLB auswirkt. Konsumvolatilität wird reduziert, wenn Schattenbankenkredite stattdessen von Banken vergeben werden. Alternativ dazu führt die Behandlung von Schattenbanken wie Investment Fonds dazu, dass eine Volkswirtschaft am ZLB eine mildere Rezession und einen schnelleren Austritt erlebt. Der Grund liegt darin, dass ein Nachfrageschock, der die Volkswirtschaft zum ZLB bringt, eine Reaktion hervorruft, die vergleichbar mit geldpolitischen Schocks ist, da am ZLB keine Möglichkeit der Leitzinsverringerung besteht.
This thesis consists of three essays that analyze the reaction of financial institutions to monetary policy. In the first essay, I use a Bayesian VAR to show that an increase in the monetary policy rate raises credit intermediation by non-bank financial institutions (NBFI). As is well known, credit intermediation by banks is reduced. The movement in opposite directions is explained by the difference in funding. This finding suggests that the existence of NBFI may decrease aggregate volatility following monetary policy shocks. Following this evidence, I construct a theoretical model that includes different types of funding in the second essay. Households face a savings choice between state contingent (equity) and non-state contingent (debt) assets. I use the financial accelerator model of Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1999) as a basis and microfound the decision by which new net worth in entrepreneurs is created. A Bayesian estimation suggests a change in the survival rate of entrepreneurs, affecting impulse responses. The analysis suggests that models that use the financial accelerator should include endogenous firm entry if variables regarding household portfolios or shocks directly affecting firm net worth are considered. In the third essay, I develop an estimated monetary DSGE model with funding market frictions that is able to replicate the empirical facts. In a counterfactual exercise I study how the regulation of shadow banks affects an economy at the ZLB. Consumption volatility is reduced when shadow bank assets are directly held by commercial banks. Alternatively, regulating shadow banks like investment funds results in a milder recession during, and a quicker escape from, the ZLB. The reason is that a recessionary demand shock that moves the economy to the ZLB has similar effects to a monetary tightening due to the inability to reduce the policy rate below zero.

Le premier chapitre montre l'interdépendance sur le marché locatif entre le formalisme procédural (FP) et les réseaux sociaux locaux. Tandis que le FP augmente le coût de résolution des conflits juridiques entre propriétaires et locataires, les réseaux sociaux présentent l'avantage de pouvoir régler un conflit sans la justice. Le FP permet de rendre plus intéressant aux yeux du propriétaire les individus appartenant à un réseau social. Le deuxième chapitre explique l'importance du soleil sur la demande de régulation du marché locatif. Les pays d'Europe du sud très ensoleillés sont attractifs de par leur douceur de vie. Cette immigration potentielle augmente la tension sur le marché locatif. Pour la réduire, les individus d'Europe du sud développent une complémentarité entre capital social local et régulation. Cette stratégie explique un équilibre méditerranéen où le capital social local et le FP sont élevés. A contrario, l'absence d'attractivité des pays faiblement ensoleillés explique un équilibre anglo-saxon et scandinave aux caractéristiques opposées. Le troisième chapitre explique le soutien pour la régulation du marché du travail par la présence de régulations sur le marché locatif. Lorsque ce dernier est très régulé, les propriétaires sélectionnent les locataires selon leur capacité à payer le loyer. Protéger les contrats à durée indéterminée oblige les entreprises à sélectionner les travailleurs et permet alors aux propriétaires de mieux estimer le risque individuel de licenciement. Nous construisons un modèle où les individus sans emploi demandent plus de régulations et de protections en dépit de l’augmentation du chômage et de la part des contrats temporaires
The first contribution studies the complementarities between the strength of social networks and the stringency of procedural formalism. While procedural formalism increases the cost of legal dispute resolution between landlords and tenants, social networks allow conflicts to be solved without recourse to justice. Procedural formalism is thus a way to provide a market advantage to local individuals embedded in dense local social networks at the expense of nonlocal agents without access to such networks.The second contribution deals with the importance of the sun on the demand for regulation in the rental market. Southern European countries with good climate amenities are attractive by their mildness of life. This potential immigration increases the pressure on the rental market. To reduce it, individuals in Southern Europe develop complementarities between social capital and local regulations. This strategy explains a Mediterranean equilibrium characterized by high levels of local social capital and procedural formalism. Conversely, the lack of attractiveness of countries with low climate amenities leads to an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian equilibrium with opposite features.The third contribution explains the support for labor market regulation by the presence of regulations on the rental market. When the rental market is very regulated, landlords screen applicants with regard to their ability to pay the rent. Protecting regular jobs offers a second-best technology to sort workers, thereby increasing the rental market size. We provide a model where non-employed workers demand protected jobs despite unemployment and the share of short-term jobs increase

En los últimos años se ha desarollado mucho la literatura que utiliza modelos estocásticos de equilibrio económico general en economía abierta. En esta clase de modelos el primer capítulo estudia si el banco central tiene que fijarse en al inflación medida mirando al los precios al consumo (CPI) o a los precios a la producción. Se demonstra como la introducción de competencia monopolística en el mercado del trabajo y rigidez de los salarios nominales justifica el utilizo de la inflación medida sobre CPI. En el segundo capítulo el enfoque es sobre las diferentes volatilidades de la inflación entre paísos de la unión monetaria y como esto se puede relacionar con diferentes estructuras del mercado del trabajo. En el último capítulo se utiliza un modelo a dos paísos para estudiar las consecuencias de una subida del precio del petróleo sobre la inflación, los salarios reales y el producto interno bruto.
In these last years there has been an increasing literature developing DSGE Open Economy Models with market imperfections and nominal rigidities. It is the so called "New Open Economy Macroeconomics". Within this class of models the first chapter analyses the issue of whether the monetary authority should target Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation or domestic inflation. It is shown that the introduction of monopolistic competition in the labour market and nominal wage rigidities rationalise CPI inflation targeting. In the second chapter we introduce matching and searching frictions in the labour market and relate different labour market structures across European countries with differences in the volatility of inflation across the same countries. In the last chapter we use a two-country model with oil in the production function and price and wage rigidities to relate movements in wage and price inflation, real wages and GDP growth rate to oil price changes.

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit Arbeitsmarkterfolg und Konsum sozioökonomischer Gruppen. Die ersten zwei Kapitel untersuchen konjunkturelle Auswirkungen auf Arbeitsmärkten für Hoch- und Niedrigqualifizierte. Zunächst wird ein qualifikationsspezifisches Konjunkturmodell mit Suchkosten entworfen. Es zeigt, dass imperfekte Substitution zwischen hoch- und niedrigqualifizierter Arbeit ein Grund für Veränderungen auf den Teilmärkten ist. Gemeinsam mit qualifikationsneutralen und -verzerrten Technologieschocks ist das Modell in der Lage, fallende Beveridge-Kurven zu generieren. Das zweite Kapitel erweitert diesen Ansatz um eine Verbindung zwischen qualifikationsabhängigen Arbeitsmärkten mit endogenen Investitionen in Humankapital. Idiosynkratische Schocks wirken auf den Anteil qualifizierter Arbeit und verändern die Arbeitsmarktdichte auf den Teilmärkten. Neutrale Schocks wirken zweistufig auf die Gesamtarbeitslosigkeit: Zuerst reduzieren sie geringqualifizierte Arbeitslosigkeit, und dann verringern sie rapide hochqualifizierte Arbeitslosigkeit. Eine hohe Substitutions-Elastizität zwischen den beiden Qualifikationen führt zu einer höheren Volatilität und einer höheren Korrelation zwischen Arbeitslosigkeit und freien Stellen. Das dritte Kapitel untersucht die Verbindung zwischen Gruppen-Konsumwachstum und dessen Volatilität, wenn die Agenten heterogen sind und eine Konsumexternalität vorliegt. Die Präferenzen der Haushalte hängen mit der Konsumwachstumsvolatilität insofern zusammen, als diese Vermögensentscheidungen treffen müssen: Die Volatilität verringert sich mit der Geduld und steigt mit dem Wunsch, das Konsumniveau der Vergleichsgruppe zu halten. Darüber hinaus sollten Konsumwachstum und dessen Volatilität positiv korrelieren. Diese letzte Hypothese wird mit Daten aus dem Sozio-oekonomischen Panel und der Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe überprüft, wobei sich ein U-förmiger Zusammenhang zwischen Konsumwachstum kurzlebiger Güter und dessen Volatilität ergibt.
This dissertation addresses the labor market performance and consumption dynamics of different socioeconomic groups. The first part examines the connection between cyclical variations in skilled and unskilled labor markets. Using a business cycle model with search frictions in skill-specific markets, I find that imperfect substitution between skilled and unskilled labor creates an important channel for variations in the skill-specific markets. Together with a skill-neutral or -biased technology shock, the model generates downward-sloping Beveridge curves in aggregate and skill-specific labor markets. I extend the study to allow for a dynamic link between the skill-specific labor markets. Human capital investment is determined endogenously and idiosyncratic shocks shift the skilled labor share and change tightness in both skilled and unskilled markets. Upon a neutral shock, the decrease of total unemployment is two-staged: Firstly with a reduction in unskilled unemployment, and then with a sharp decline of skilled unemployment when skill substitution dominates. A larger elasticity of substitution between the two types of labor leads to higher volatility of the model variables and higher correlation between unemployment and vacancies. The second part studies the link between group-specific consumption growth and its volatility in a framework of heterogeneous agents, under the assumption of a consumption externality. Household preferences are related to the consumption growth volatility through asset holding decisions: The volatility decreases with groups'' patience, and increases with the eagerness to keep up with the group average. Moreover, consumption growth is expected to be positively related to its volatility. This last hypothesis is tested using household data imputed from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the German Income and Expenditure Survey, where a U-shaped relationship is found between nondurable consumption growth and its volatility.

This thesis examines the interactions between marital patterns, inequality, and fertility. In the first chapter I analyze the impact of search frictions on marital assortative matching. I exploit a temporary interruption of the “London Season” — a central marriage market where the nineteenth-century British aristocracy courted. I find that the reduction of search frictions associated with this institution explains between 70 and 80 percent of sorting in social status and land-holdings, generating a huge concentration of landed wealth. In the second chapter I examine the relationship between land inequality and the introduction of public education in late-Victorian England and Wales. I show that counties where landownership was more concentrated systematically under-invested in public schooling. In the final chapter I estimate the effects of cousin marriage on fertility in the British peerage. I find that consanguinity initially increases the number of births, but constraints reproductive success in the long-run.
En aquesta tesis s’examina la interacció entre els patrons matrimonials, la desigualtat i la fertilitat. En el primer capítol s’analitza l’impacte de les friccions en el procés de cerca sobre l’emparellament selectiu. L’anàlisi es centra en una interrupció de la “London Season” — un mercat de matrimonis centralitzat on els nobles Britànics buscaven esposa. S’estableix que la reducció en les friccions de cerca associades a aquesta institució explica entre un 70 i un 80 per cent de l’emparellament selectiu en termes d’estatus social i de terratinença, afavorint la concentració de terres en poques mans. Al segon capítol s’examina la relació entre la desigualtat en la distribució de la terra i la introducció de l’educació pública a l’Anglaterra victoriana. Els resultats indiquen que els comptats més desiguals varen patir un dèficit sistemàtic en educació pública. Al capítol final s’estimen els efectes de l’endogàmia sobre la fertilitat a la noblesa Britànica. L’endogàmia sembla augmentar el nombre de naixements, però alhora limita l’èxit reproductiu en el llarg termini.

This dissertation is composed of three essays using labor search models to explore the role of referral-networks in the labor market. The first, "The Stabilizing Effect of Referral-Networks on the Labor Market," examines how the use of informal connections (i.e. referral-networks) affects the severity and duration of recessions. To do so, I develop a search-and-matching model in which there are two hiring methods, formal channels and informal channels, and workers endogenously adjust their network of informal contacts in response to shocks and government policy. I show referral-networks have a stabilizing effect on the labor market, reducing the severity of adverse economic shocks and accelerating post-recession recovery. Counterfactuals demonstrate the government must exercise caution when enacting policies intended to expedite economic recovery. Policies that generically improve worker-firm matching prolong recovery by 8 months, as they facilitate relatively more matches between workers and low-productivity firms during recessions. In contrast, policies aimed at reducing the costs of network-formation or increasing referral-network prevalence facilitate more matches between workers and high-productivity firms, expediting recovery by 3-6 months.

The second chapter, "The Impact of Referral-Networks on Sectoral Reallocation," investigates a new explanation for the long-run decline in sectoral switching--the increased prevalence of referral-networks. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), I first document empirically significant increase in the use of referral-networks in the job-search process by the unemployed. Moreover, this increase is concurrent with the decline in sectoral switching. The CPS is then used to estimate the effect of using referral-networks on the likelihood of an individual switching sectors at a various levels of industry classifications. For all aggregations, using referral-networks significantly reduces the probability a worker switches sectors. After controlling for demographics, these estimates imply an increase in the prevalence of referral-network use could explain as much as 5% to 40% of the decline in sectoral switching.

To better illustrate the policy implications of this finding, a discrete time sectoral-switching model is constructed using a search and matching framework with labor market referrals. The estimated model estimates a referral-switching elasticity of about -.12, which is within the empirically estimated range of -.05 to -.22 for the 2-sector industry aggregation, demonstrating that the increased of the prevalence of referrals overtime can explain about 20% of the decline in US sectoral switching. Welfare results indicate that referrals are a "benign'' cause of the decline, i.e. welfare declines upon effectively banning the use of referral-networks. These results have important implications for policymakers. They suggest that the cause of the decline in sectoral switching (and more generally job-changing) is the result of improved matching efficiency over time rather than market inefficiency.

The third chapter, "Does Job-Finding Using Informal Connections Reduce Mismatch?," presents evidence that nonpecuniary benefits of a job, such as hours, commute time, and work environment, are a salient factor in a worker's decision to either accept or reject the offer. Using data form the Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), I document three empirical facts on the use of referral-networks and mismatch. First, not all referrals reduce perceived mismatch as reported by workers. For high-skill workers, referrals from former coworkers tend to reduce perceived nonpecuniary-mismatch. For low-skill workers, referrals from friends and family tend to increase perceived non-pecuniary mismatch.

Given these empirical facts, I construct a search-and-matching model of the labor market similar to Buhrmann [2018a] where workers and firms are given types on a unit interval and suffer increasingly greater productivity losses depending on distance between the firm's type and the worker's type. I augment this baseline model with mismatch along two dimensions -- skill and nonpecuniary preferences-- and calibrate it to the US economy. Results show nonpecuniary preferences can generate more dispersion in skill-mismatch for very low-skill workers and very high-skill workers. Moreover, while referral-networks generally improve aggregate mismatch, they have a heterogeneous affect on nonpecuniary mismatch by type. For low-skill (high-skill) workers, referral-networks increase (decrease) nonpecuniary mismatch.

Overall, the results from this dissertation serve as a guide for policymakers. While government intervention may be deemed necessary in recessions, it is vital to understand the role specific matching channels serve in the economy in order for a policy to achieve the desired result. Understanding that referrals generate more high-productivity matches suggests policymakers should investigate policies aimed at improving network formation and functionality. Similarly, distinguishing between formal and informal methods of job finding are key to understanding recent labor market phenomenon. The second chapter shows informal channels have become more ubiquitous in order to facilitate matching. While this change creates patterns in the data that seem concerning, a closer investigation reveals this seems to be a result of the market simply adapting to be more efficient. Finally, understanding why people use formal and informal channels is vital to understanding worker-firm mismatch on a micro-level. While high-skill workers use informal channels to find better matches, low-skill seem to use them to find any match faster. In essence, the findings of this dissertation emphasize the need for policymakers to understand the nuanced behavior of job seekers and the differing goals of various job-finding methods. One cannot simply treat all job-finding as the same, especially if a particular method is widely used and leads to significantly different outcomes, and expect to implement efficient policy. Thus, it is important to understand how certain job-finding methods differ on a micro level and apply these finding to macro policy.

This thesis studies the importance and implications of information asymmetry in decentralized markets with search frictions. The first chapter provides an introduction and literature review. In the next chapter, I propose a model of the housing market using a search framework in which sellers are unable to commit to asking prices announced ex ante. Relaxing the commitment assumption prevents sellers from using price posting as a signalling device to direct buyers' search. Adverse selection and inefficient entry on the demand side then contribute to housing market illiquidity. Real estate agents that can facilitate the search process can segment the market and alleviate information frictions. In Chapter 3, I further study the importance and implications of the commitment assumptions embedded in directed search models. I eliminate commitment to take-it-or-leave-it trading mechanisms in a model of the labour market with worker heterogeneity and a matching process that allows for multiple firms to match with a single worker. When workers and firms cannot commit to ex ante offers, to an allocation rule, or to an ex post bargaining strategy, the equilibrium is necessarily inefficient. This is true for a broad class of protocols for wage determination, of which bilateral bargaining and Bertrand competition are special cases. Finally, Chapter 4 presents a theory of land market activity for settings where there is uncertainty and private information about the security of land tenure. Land sellers match with buyers in a competitive search environment, and an illiquid land market emerges as a screening mechanism. The implications of the theory are tested using household level data from Indonesia. As predicted, formally titled land is more liquid than untitled land in the sense that ownership rights are more readily transferable.
Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-09 22:03:23.045

Distortions that affect macroeconomic outcomes are an important avenue through which we can explain differences in cross country output and productivity. In this thesis I concentrate on two types of distortions, political economy and informational distortions. In Chapter one, I build a model of intermediated corruption where interactions between government bureaucrats and those who bribe them are mediated by a third party. I show that intermediation has significant effects on the incidence of corruption and the prices entrepreneurs pay for permits. When corruption is particularly acute, measures that increase the frequency with which government bureaucrats are audited often have the undesirable result of increasing the prevalence of corruption because of intermediation. In Chapter two I explore the link between corruption and inequality by building a model in which tax collectors are corrupt. I find that as inequality increases, the frequency of corrupt transactions increases as well. I also find that where corruption is more severe, because wealthier individuals tend to pay lower taxes, inequality is higher. I perform a few quantitative experiments to better understand this linkage. Chapter three explores distortions that are caused by adverse selection in markets with search frictions. I find that when participants are concerned about the information they reveal through their interactions in the market, the distortions to liquidity are deeper and that equilibrium selection is significantly affected. I also find that markets with reputational concerns are more sensitive to outside shocks.

The choice of an appropriate government policy tool to promote the employment should be done with regard to the source of unemployment. This diploma the- sis investigates structural and cyclical components of unemployment. The two components are induced by different causes. Search and matching frictions in the labor market are the source of the structural component. The cyclical component is induced by a low labor productivity which induces a negative gross marginal profit of firms. Consequently, they are obliged to cancel a portion of existing job- worker matches. The main finding is that during a period of economic slowdown the overall unemployment and its cyclical component rise while the structural component declines. The dynamics of the two components is reversed during a robust economic growth. The diploma thesis proceeds with investigating the pub- lic hiring, a policy potentially suitable to diminish the unemployment during an economic slowdown. The results show that the public hiring can be successfully applied despite the private employment crowding out. A New Keynesian DSGE model calibrated for the Czech Republic is used to model the labor market dy- namics. The results are interpreted with regard to the historic development of the unemployment and the economic growth from 2000 to 2014. JEL...

Cette thèse analyse l'effet de la législation de protection de l'emploi sur le taux de chômage, les salaires et la productivité des entreprises. En particulier, je m'intéresse dans cette thèse à l’effet de la réglementation des licenciements et des contrats de travail temporaires. Cette question de recherche est motivée par le fait que dans de nombreux pays de l’OCDE, la législation combine des coûts de licenciements élevés et des restrictions faibles sur les contrats temporaires, ce qui entraîne, d’après un certain nombre d’économistes, une segmentation du marché du travail. Le premier chapitre défend l’idée qu’il est important de comprendre les mécanismes qui expliquent le choix des entreprises de signer des contrats temporaires ou permanents afin d'évaluer l’effet de la protection de l’emploi. Ce chapitre analyse un problème de contrat dynamique entre un travailleur averse au risque et un employeur neutre vis-à-vis du risque. Dans ce chapitre, je soutiens notamment que le choix du type d'emploi est déterminé par un arbitrage entre les gains associés au partage du risque qu’offre un emploi permanent et les gains associés à la flexibilité qu’offre un emploi temporaire. Le deuxième chapitre construit un modèle du marché du travail caractérisé par des frictions de recherche et d’appariement, dans lequel le contrat dynamique du chapitre 1 est intégré. Je propose ainsi un modèle dans lequel l’allocation des agents au sein des différents types d’emplois est déterminée de façon endogène par des considérations reliées au partage du risque. Le modèle, calibré pour reproduire les caractéristiques du marché du travail en France durant les années 2000, suggère que les contrats temporaires ont tendance à augmenter la productivité des entreprises mais également le taux de chômage. Le dernier chapitre propose un modèle de cycle de vie visant à évaluer les effets des coûts de licenciement sur l’emploi et les salaires en fonction du niveau d’éducation et d’expérience. Le modèle est calibré sur les données d’enquête sur la main d’œuvre en France durant les années 2000. Une série d'expériences contrefactuelles indiquent que les coûts de licenciement ont un effet négatif sur l’emploi, concentré principalement sur les jeunes travailleurs avec un niveau d’éducation faible. En revanche, cet effet semble être négligeable pour les travailleurs avec un niveau d'expérience et d'éducation élevé.
This thesis analyzes the effect of employment protection on labor market outcomes. The thesis focuses on the impact of firing restrictions and the regulation of temporary contracts. In many OECD countries, the employment protection legislation combines high firing restrictions and relatively lax regulation of temporary jobs which is, according to several economists, a source of labor market segmentation. The first chapter argues that analyzing the effect of employment protection requires to understand how economic agents choose between permanent and temporary contracts. This chapter examines a dynamic employment contract between a risk-averse worker and a risk-neutral firm. I argue in this chapter that the choice between a permanent and a temporary contract is driven by a trade-off between efficient risk-sharing and flexibility. The second chapter builds a model of the labor market with search frictions, in which the contracting problem of chapter 1 is embedded. Thus, this chapter proposes a model in which the allocation of agents into permanent and temporary jobs is endogenous to risk-sharing considerations. The model is calibrated to the features of the French labor market during the 2000s and indicates that temporary contracts tend to increase productivity but unemployment as well. The third chapter proposes a life-cycle model to evaluate the effect of firing costs across different experience and education groups. The model is calibrated using a French labor force survey dataset. Policy experiments suggest that firing costs have a negative effect on employment, which is concentrated on low experience and education workers.