Preferences over jobs depend on wages and non-wage aspects. Variation in wealth may change the importance of income as a motivation for working. Higher wealth levels may make good non-wage characteristics relatively more important. This hypothesis is tested empirically using a reduced form...

There is little internal propagation of unemployment in standard search and matching models. When calibrated to the high levels of worker flows observed empirically, unemployment in these models rapidly converges back to its steady state level. We illustrate that even with high worker flows...

This paper discusses the interrelations among wealth, reservation wages and search effort. A theoretical job search model predicts wealth to affect reservation wages positively, and search effort negatively. Subsequently, reduced form equations for reservation wages and search intensity take...

Do transportation costs constrain job search in urban low wage labor markets? I test this question by providing transit subsidies to randomly selected clients of a non-profit employment agency. The subsidies generate a large, short-run increase in search intensity for a transit subsidy group...

This paper develops a matching model of the labor market with heterogeneous firms, on-the-job search and family referrals. The overall effect of referrals on wages can be decomposed into three distinct components. First, if referrals are used to help unemployed partners find jobs, then...

Even though the Disability System in Spain is designed to allow partially disabled individuals to combine the receipt of the benefits with a job, their employment rates have remained very low since 1996. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the results of an employment promotion policy...

This paper analyzes how the option to evade employment protection legislation impacts on unemployment. Using a stylized model, it is established that the level of unemployment is non-monotonous in the degree of strictness with which employment protection legislation is enforced. Considering just...

In a random search environment with two racial groups each composed of identical numbers of high and low productivity workers, firms use an imperfect screening device (interviews) to control hiring. If inconclusive interviews lead firms to hire majority workers but not minority workers, then the...

This paper incorporates job search through personal contacts into an equilibrium matching model with a segregated labor market. Firms can post wage offers in the regular job market, alternatively they can save on advertising costs and rely on word-of-mouth communication. Wages are then...

Numerous field experiments have demonstrated the existence of discrimination in labor markets against specific minority groups. This paper uses a correspondence test to determine whether this discrimination is due to prejudice against specific groups, or a general preference for the majority...