Most Oecd Countries are experiencing a rapid population ageing. Italy adds to this picture a very low labour market participation of the elders, so that most projections of the impact of ageing on the labour market are rather pessimistic. However, there are other long run modifications currently...

This paper extends the standard human capital model with real options. Real options influence investment behavior when risky investments in human capital are irreversible and individuals can affect the timing of the investment. Option values make individuals more reluctant to invest in human...

I show that liquidity constraints are related to individuals' occupational choice. A proxy for the prospect of becoming liquidity constrained affects negatively the probability of being self-employed as opposed to being employed in the private or the public sectors. Furthermore, individuals with...

We characterize the equilibrium of a search model with a continuum of job and worker types, wage bargaining, free entry of vacancies and on-the-job search. The decentralized economy with monopsonistic wage setting yields too many vacancies and hence too low unemployment compared to first best....

Transition economies encounter numerous problems as they go through the process of converting their centrally planned economic systems into market economies. One hurdle they face is how to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). One of the keys to attracting FDI is having financial statements...

This paper investigates how enforcement of labor regulation affects the firm's use of informal employment and its impact on firm performance. Using firm level data on informal employment and firm performance, and administrative data on enforcement of regulation at the city level, the authors...

Even though a large share of the workforce belongs to two-earner households, job search models invariably ignore the interaction between the wage earners of the same household. In this article, job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households are simultaneously analysed. The main...

We develop a quot;passive learningquot; model of firm entry by spin-off: firm employees leave their employer and create a new firm when (a) they learn they are good entrepreneurs (type I spin-offs) or (b) they learn their employer's prospects are bad (type II spin-offs). Our theory predicts a...

In this essay, I argue that the preeminence of Silicon Valley as an incubator of technology companies is attributable to equity compensation. Ronald Gilson, relying on the work of AnnaLee Saxenian and others who have noted the tendency of Silicon Valley employees to job hop, has suggested that...

This paper deals with the question whether the concept of transitional labour market (TLM) might be useful to formulate hypotheses about the relationship between the size and nature of labour market transitions and the performance of employment regimes. The paper starts from the idea that the...