We examine how much of the observed wage dispersion among similar workers can be explained as a consequence of a lack of coordination among employers. To do this, we construct a directed search model with homogenous workers but where firms can create either good or bad jobs, aimed at either...

I study the consequences of heterogeneity of skills for the design of an optimal unemployment insurance, using a principal-agent set-up with a risk neutral insurer and infinitely lived risk averse agents. Agents, who are characterised by different productivities or skills, are employed by firms...

I estimate a life cycle model of consumption choice with unemployment risk. Employed individuals face the risk of losing their job. Unemployed agents receive job random offers of different quality, which they can accept or reject. Following the loss of a job and during unemployment, an agent’s...

This paper examines the impact of job search methods on the output of the job search process in a segmented labor market. Theoretical models of job search, like the widely used search approach, generally contain only one parameter capturing all possible factors affecting the efficiency of...

Using the NLSY data set, this paper formulates and then empirically estimates the production processes for social, motivational and cognitive skills during early childhood development and the long-term effects of these skills on learning and life-time earnings of an individual. Using these...

This paper analyzes the effect of co-worker discrimination on wage and unemployment differentials between males and females using a search model. In the presence of asymmetric co- worker discrimination, no female-dominated firm emerges in the labor market. An increase in female participation...

We develop a model where agents obtain information about job opportunities through an explicitly modeled network of social contacts. We show that an improvement in the employment status of either an agent's direct or indirect contacts leads to an increase in the agent's employment probability...

This study explores the potential role of adverse working conditions at the workplace in the determination of on-the-job search in the Finnish labour market. The results reveal that workers currently facing adverse working conditions have greater intentions to switch jobs and they are also more...

This paper presents an overview of the youth unemployment problem and youth employment policy principally from the European perspective although it is hoped that much of the coment and analysis is relevant for a much broader range of countries. Its intention is to raise issues rather than...

Due to a tax law implemented in 1998, Dutch employers can claim an extra tax deduction when they train employees aged 40 years or older. This causes a discontinuity in a firm's cost of training an employee. We exploit this discontinuity to identify two effects: the effect of the tax deduction on...