Job search decisions of unemployed workers are forward-looking and respond to expected returns from the search process. When expected returns (or discount rates) are high, the discounted benefits from the search process are low. Thus unemployed workers search less intensively for jobs. We build...

We investigate the impact of mass layoff announcements on the equity value of industry rivals. When a layoff announcement conveys good (bad) news for the announcer, rivals on average witness a 0.44 percent increase (0.60 percent decrease) in cumulative abnormal stock returns. This effect is...

We investigate the impact of mass layoff announcements on the equity value of industry rivals. When a layoff announcement conveys good (bad) news for the announcer, rivals on average witness a 0.44 percent increase (0.60 percent decrease) in cumulative abnormal stock returns. This effect is...

This paper examines whether suppliers suffer from information externalities when their major customers make layoff announcements. We find suppliers, on average, experience a negative stock price reaction around their major customers' layoff announcements. Furthermore, the negative price effect...

Contrary to popular belief, layoff announcements do not always lead to reduced employment. Using hand-collected data on layoff announcements for S&P 500 firms, I show that 32% of layoffs announced do not lead to employment downsizing. While the market, in the short run, does not react...

Using data on layoff announcements by S&P 500 firms, we show that layoff announcements mostly contain industrywide news. Competitors' stock price reactions are positively correlated with the announcer's returns. This contagion effect is stronger for competitors whose values depend on growth...

I establish empirically and theoretically that expectations of returns and cash flows are linked to firms' labor search decisions. Using a dataset that covers the near-universe of online job vacancy postings, I show that vacancy rates negatively predict stock returns and positively predict cash...

We consider an alternative modelling approach to the mainstream DSGE paradigm, namely a Dynamic Stochastic General Disequilibrium (DSGD) baseline model of continuous and gradual adjustment processes on interacting real and financial markets. Heterogeneous capital gain expectations (chartists and...

We provide a systematic analysis of the properties of individual returns to wealth using twenty years of population data from Norway's administrative tax records. We document a number of novel results. First, in a given cross-section, individuals earn markedly different returns on their assets,...