In this paper, we extend the standard Pissarides model of equilib- rium unemployment to incorporate public-sector employment. We modify the Pissarides model in three ways. First, we assume that workers are het- erogeneous in terms of human capital. Second, we assume that productivity is match...

Not all meetings, however, necessarily lead to transactions. A match occurs if and only if the sale results in a positive surplus; otherwise, the potential buyer and seller continue to search. The continuation flow values that the prospective buyer and seller bring to the table as well as the...

There is a unique stationary equilibrium in the price-posting game played by firms. Depending on parameters, this equilibrium can take one of three possible forms. First the equilibrium can be one in which all firms post a high price. Second, all firms could post a low price. Finally, there can...

This result would seem to imply that the more members on a committee the lower the average search duration. It turns out that this does not immediately follow, and in fact, the average search duration may increase as the committee grows in size. Thus, we cannot simply compare thresholds to...

We consider a housing market with large numbers of buyers and sellers. Sellers differ in their reservation prices; buyers are ex ante identical. In the first stage of the game, each seller posts an asking price. Next, each buyer, after observing all asking prices, chooses a house to visit. Upon...

In this paper, we present a directed search model of the housing market. The pricing mechanism we analyze reflects the way houses are bought and sold in the United States. Our model is consistent with the observation that houses are sometimes sold above, sometimes below and sometimes at the...

We show that in a search/matching model with endogenous participation in which workers are heterogeneous with respect to market productivity, satisfying the Hosios rule leads to excessive vacancy creation. The reason is that the marginal worker does not internalize the effect of his or her...

In many economies, there is substantial economic activity in the informal sector, beyond the reach of government policy. Labor market policies, which by definition apply only to the formal sector, can have important spillover effects on the informal sector. The relative sizes of the informal and...

In many economies, there is substantial economic activity in the informal sector, beyond the reach of government policy. Labor market policies, which by definition apply only to the formal sector, can have important spillover effects on the informal sector. The relative sizes of the informal and...