This paper studies the cyclical behaviour of earnings risk and career changes. We document that the procyclical skewness of the earnings growth distribution arises mostly from the earnings changes of employer and occupation switchers. To uncover their relative importance in driving cyclical...

Job loss expectations were widespread among workers in East Germany aftfter reunification with West Germany. Though experiencing a large negative employment shock, East German workers were still overpessimistic immediately aftfter reunification with respect to their job risk. Over time, job loss...

We are the first to provide empirical evidence on differences in the individual costs of job loss for migrants compared to natives in Germany. Using linked employer-employee data for the period 1996-2017, we compute each displaced worker's earnings, wage, and employment loss after a mass layoff...

We document substantial cross-sectional heterogeneity of German establishments’ real wage cyclicality over the business cycle. While wages of the median establishment are moderately procyclical, 36 percent of establishments have countercyclical wages. We estimate a negative connection between...

This paper analyzes the heterogeneous effects of monetary policy on workers with differing levels of labor force attachment. Exploiting variation in labor market tightness across metropolitan areas, we show that the employment of populations with lower labor force attachment—Blacks, high...

Fertility in the US exhibits an increasingly more procyclical pattern. We argue that women's breadwinner status is behind procyclical fertility: (i) women's relative income in the family has increased over time; and (ii) women are more likely to work in relatively stable and countercyclical...

We confront two seemingly-contradictory observations about the US labor market: the rate at which workers change employers has declined since the 1980s, yet there is a commonly expressed view that long-term employment relationships are more difficult to attain. We reconcile these observations by...

We use detailed administrative data to study how acquisitions - specifically the acquisition of a plant by a firm with a similar plant in the same local labor market - affect workers. Using an event study framework with a control group of workers at unaffected plants, we find that acquisitions...

This study investigates the effects of local broadband internet availability on establishment-level employment growth. The analysis uses data for Germany in the years 2005-2009, when broadband was introduced in rural regions of Western Germany and in large parts of Eastern Germany. Technical...

Analyzing gender gaps of unemployed job-seekers, this study uniquely complements the broad literature focussing predominantly on gender gaps of employed workers. I consider a broad range of labor market outcomes, and disentangle the factors driving the labor market gaps of unemployed men and...