Hours volatility has changed non-monotonically across skill groups since the mid-1980s. This study researches the implications of such changes on the welfare costs of business cycles. Using a partial equilibrium model in which hours fluctuations are the only source of uncertainty, we find that...

A significant obstacle to studying business cycle properties of job polarization has been the presence of inconsistencies in aggregate employment data for different occupation groups. In order to overcome this problem, we construct aggregate hours series using the method of 'conversion factors',...