In this paper we investigate the process of job search, using a unique, large-scale data set for Portugal that allows us to assess the effect of job search methods on escape rates from unemployment and, in a new departure, the impact of job-finding methods used by the unemployed on earnings. In...

This paper charts the effects of unemployment insurance (UI) on escape rates from unemployment using data from the Displaced Worker Survey. Transition rates from unemployment to employment are estimated via a flexible semiparametric specification that allows the effects of UI recipiency (and...

Using data from the Portuguese quarterly employment surveys, 1992-96, the present chapter examines the effect of unemployment insurance (UI) on escape rates from unemployment. The first concern is to identify the manner in which UI influences the time profile of these broad transitions. To this...

This paper estimates a wage equation with three high-dimensional fixed effects, using a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset covering virtually all Portuguese wage earners over a little more than two decades. The variation in log real hourly wages is decomposed into different...

This paper estimates a wage equation that includes worker- and firm fixed effects simultaneously, using a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset covering virtually all Portuguese employees over a little more than two-decades. The exercise is performed under optimal conditions by using...

A thorny problem in identifying the determinants of reservation wages and particularly the role of continued joblessness in their evolution is the simultaneity issue. We deploy a natural control function approach to the problem that involves conditioning elapsed duration on completed...

At first blush, most advances in labour demand were achieved by the late 1980s. Since then progress might appear to have stalled. We argue to the contrary that significant progress has been made in understanding labour market frictions and imperfections, and in modelling search behaviour and...

Portuguese firms engage in intense reallocation, most employers simultaneously hire and separate from workers, resulting in high excess worker turnover flows. These flows are constrained by the employment protection gap between open-ended and fixed-term contracts. We explore a reform that...