I examine whether a version of the Cahuc et al. (2006) model can match the magnitude of wage dispersion, as measured by the ratio of the average and the lowest wage - the so-called mean-min ratio of Hornstein et al. (2011). I find that the workers' bargaining power is a crucial parameter: the...

Increases in wage inequality and atypical employment have occurred across post-industrial economies in recent decades. Technological change, globalization, the employment shift to services, and the decentralization of collective bargaining are commonly cited as causes. I argue that where social...

This paper develops a sufficient statistics approach for estimating the role of search frictions in wage dispersion and life-cycle wage growth. We show how the wage dynamics of displaced workers are directly informative of both for a large class of search models. Specifically, the correlation...

In this lecture I first give an explanation for invidious preferences based on the (evolutionary) competition for resources. Then I show that these preferences have wide ranging and empirically relevant effects on labor markets, such as: workplace skill segregation, gradual promotions, wage...

We present a competing-auction theory of the labor market, where job candidates auction their labor services to employers. An equilibrium matching function emerges which has many of the features commonly assumed, including constant returns to scale in large economies. The auction mechanism also...

This paper develops a sufficient statistics approach for estimating the role of search frictions in wage dispersion and life‐cycle wage growth. We show how the wage dynamics of displaced workers are directly informative of both for a large class of search models. Specifically, the correlation...

Wage dispersion among observationally similar workers is still only partially unexplained by economists from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Given that jobs can be broken down into tasks, namely units of work activities producing output, we empirically test whether part of the...

Wage dispersion among observationally similar workers is still only partially unexplained by economists from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Given that jobs can be broken down into tasks, namely units of work activities producing output, we empirically test whether part of the...

Microeconomic data on individual firms and employer-employee matches reveal substantial and persistent dispersion in firm size, productivity, and average wage paid and a positive correlation between each pair. To the extent that intrinsic differences in firm productivity explain these facts,...