This paper shows that the matching function and the Beveridge curve in the United States exhibit strong nonlinearities over the business cycle. These patterns can be replicated by enhancing a search and matching model with idiosyncratic productivity shocks for new contacts. Large negative...

In the standard macroeconomic search and matching model of the labor market, there is a tight link between the quantitative effects of (i) aggregate productivity shocks on unemployment and (ii) unemployment benefits on unemployment. This tight link is at odds with the empirical literature. We...

Using two data sets derived from German administrative data, including a linked employer-employee data set, we investigate the cyclicality of worker and job flows. The analysis stresses the importance of two-sided labour market heterogeneity in this context, taking into account both observed and...

Das Hamburger Modell zur Beschäftigungsförderung zielt darauf ab, Arbeitslose mit geringen Verdienstmöglichkeiten und schlechten Arbeitsmarktchancen durch zeitlich befristete Zuschüsse, die sowohl den Teilnehmern an der Maßnahme als auch den Arbeitgebern gewährt werden, in den regulären...

Human capital investment is formed through households' endogenous decision, and competes with physical capital investment. Idiosyncratic shock shifts the skilled labor share and changes tightness in both skilled and unskilled markets. Given inelastic labor participation, the model can generate...

We revisit the puzzling finding that labour market performance appears to deteriorate, as suggested by negative time trends in empirical matching functions. We investigate whether these trends simply arise from omitted variable bias. Concretely, we consider the omission of job seekers beyond the...

This paper analyzes the importance of time aggregation in the measurement of worker flows by exploiting daily information from German administrative data. Time aggregation caused by comparing monthly labor market states leads to an underestimation of total worker flows by around 10%. Contrary to...

Does the low wage sector serve as a stepping stone towards integration into better-paid jobs or at least towards integration of jobless people into employment? There is evidence for a 'low-wage trap' and for a high risk of low-wage earners to get unemployed, but this may also be due to sorting...

Fixed search costs, i.e. costs that don't vary with search duration, can amplify the cyclical volatility of the labor market. To assess the size of fixed costs, we analyse the relation of search costs and search duration with data from Germany. Using an OLS regression we find that fixed search...

A large body of literature explains the inferior position of unskilled workers by imposing a structural shift in the labor force skill composition. This paper takes a different approach by emphasizing the connection between cyclical variations in skilled and unskilled labor markets. Using a...