We show that a minimum wage can have large effects throughout the earnings distribution,using a combination of theory and empirical evidence. To this end, we develop an equilibriumsearch model featuring empirically relevant worker and firm heterogeneity. We usethe estimated model to evaluate a...

In the data, entrepreneurship contributes to the micro and macro-level patterns of gross labor market flows and the selection into that occupation is highly responsive to labor market policy changes. Using an occupational choice model of employment, unemployment, and entrepreneurship, we show...

This paper analyzes the optimal cyclical behavior of labor market policies in an economy with asset and labor market frictions. The policies of interest include unemployment insurance (UI) and employment protection (EP). In addition to their supply-side effects, labor market policies affect the...

The business restrictions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the labour market. However, quantifying their costs is not trivial as local policies affect neighbouring areas through spillovers. Exploiting the U.S. local variation in restrictions and commuting, we estimate the...

Scholarship on the relationships between key macroeconomic variables and defense investment is divided on both the appropriate level of aggregation for such analysis, and the direction of causality between macroeconomic variables and defense investment. Both NATO and the EU, through the European...

Juxtaposing qualitative as well as quantitative facts across the broader African continent, the authors explore critical issues compounding developmental woes of the continent at the present. Despite the facts being on the fringes as explanations to the sluggish development of Africa, the...

The job guarantee is a viable policy option for tackling both unemployment and underemployment. Hyman P. Minsky was one of the seminal writers on this subject. The first part of this working paper provides a survey of Minsky’s writings to identify what kind of jobs he had in mind when...

The effects of automation on our economy and society are more palpable than ever, with nearly half of jobs at risk of being fully executed by machines over the next decade or two. Policymakers and scholars alike have championed the Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a catch-all solution to this...

In the US, unemployed workers must satisfy two requirements to receive unemployment insurance (UI): a tenure requirement that stipulates the minimum qualifying work spell and a monetary requirement that determines a past minimum wage. This paper develops a heterogeneous agents model with...

Using an administrative dataset covering 2 million job loss events we analyze the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on spending from 2008 to 2020. We find that during the Great Recession spending cuts after job loss were deeper than in the subsequent expansion, but in the COVID-19...