This paper empirically examines the view that wage rigidity in long-term labor contracts matters for the behavior of employment. In particular, I follow Bils's (1991) approach, which looks for systematic employment patterns in the first year of long-term contracts. Using a new panel data set...

This paper models a union and firm choosing between long labor contracts, in which wages are predetermined, and short contracts, in which wages are flexible. It is shown that the union strictly prefers short contracts because it dislikes the greater employment volatility in long contracts. In...

Matching models of the labour market have been of particular interest in macroeconomics where the notion of 'thick-market' externalities can lead to multiple equilibria. This has led to some recent interest in constructing empirical estimates of labor-market matching functions. This paper argues...

Within a progressive income-tax system, Registered Retirement Saving Plans (RRSPs) generate a substitution effect that decreases saving. The key point made here is that when an RRSP is introduced to a system that taxes capital income, the rate of return on marginal saving within the RRSP is...