This paper examines identification of search models in conditions with initial condition problems. This includes incomplete spells, as well as heterogeneity in reservation wages across workers. Applying the insights of our methodology allows us to reconcile two alternative approaches to...

The rate of job-to-job transitions is twice as large today as the rate at which workers move from employment to unemployment. I demonstrate that, under plausible specifications, the basic job-ladder model --- the workhorse model of the literature on on-the-job search --- has no chance of...

This paper introduces two complementary models of firm-specific training: an informational model and a productivity-enhancement model. In both models, market provision of firm-specific training is inefficient. However, the nature of the inefficiency depends on the balance between the two key...

I reconcile macro- and micro-evidence on price-setting in a search and matching framework. Negotiation of wages substantially increases strategic complementarity of price-setting and thus real price rigidities which reduces implied price durations. This mechanism also dampens wage responses to...

Shimer (2005) and Hall (2005) have documented the failure of standard labor market search models to match business cycle fluctuations in employment and unemployment. They argue that it is likely that wages are not adjusted as regularly as suggested by the model, which would explain why...