What members do unions protect? This question is relevant to an ongoing debate about union wage distribution. This paper investigates how unionization affects the relationship between involuntary job loss and a worker's unobservable ability. Taking advantage of detailed micro-level panel data...

The objective of this paper is to study the long term effects of policy measures for displaced workers. Our focus is on the individuals affected by the closure of the Uddevalla Shipyard in western Sweden in 1985 and the cutbacks at the LKAB mines in northern Sweden in 1983. These workers not...

This paper analyzes the role of the extensive vis-à-vis the intensive margin of labor adjustment in Germany and in the United States. The contribution is twofold. First, we provide an update of older U.S. studies and confirm the view that the extensive margin (i.e., the adjustment in the number...

This paper analyzes the role of the extensive vis-à-vis the intensive margin of labor adjustment in Germany and in the United States. The contribution is twofold. First, we provide an update of older US studies and confirm the view that the extensive margin (i.e., the adjustment in the number...

We suggest a parsimonious dynamic agency model in which workers have status concerns. A firm is a promotion hierarchy in which a worker's status depends on past performance. We investigate the optimality of two types of promotion hierarchies: (i) internal labor markets, in which agents have a...