To interpret estimates of empirical earnings functions, and to resolve sample selection problems such as "tenure bias", the wage determination process must be specified. This paper show that an earnings function can be interpreted as a wage offer in a labour market auction in which the worker...

This paper analyses the contract-posting equilibrium in a general equilibrium matching model of the labour market with on-the-job turnover. Privately optimal contracts have a rising wage-tenure profile, even when productivity is constant. The effect is to reduce equilibrium turnover; when jobs...

Conventionally, predation is assumed to select for conspicuousness and uniformity of warning signals in aposematic (i.e., chemically defended and warning signaling) prey because this enhances predators' initial and learned avoidance. On the other hand, it has been suggested that both variation...

We construct an equilibrium random matching model of the labour market, withendogenous market participation and a general matching technology that allows formarket size effects: the job-finding rate for workers and the incentives for participationchange with the level of unemployment. In...

Vocational training systems differ markedly between countries. A model of firm-based human capital investment predicts equilibria characterised by particular patterns of training and job-to-job mobility, consistent with observed cross-country differences. Incentives to invest in human capital...

A common assumption in equilibrium search and matching models of the labour market is that each firm posts a wage, to be paid to any worker hired. This paper considers the implications of firms posting "contracts", in a random matching model with on-the-job search. More complex contracts enable...

Public services can be, and are, delivered according to a variety of different arrangements. The public sector can finance and provide a service itself, or contract with the private sector to participate in provision, or its role may be limited to regulating a private provider. In this paper we...

Although a number of different models have been suggested for the process that brings workers and firms together in the labour market, none of these performs well in empirical studies of the aggregate matching function. Empirically, the most successful functional form is Cobb-Douglas, for which...

This paper analyses the contract-posting equilibrium in a general equilibrium matching model of the labour market with on-the-job turnover. Privately optimal contracts have a rising wage-tenure profile, even when productivity is constant. The effect is to reduce equilibrium turnover; when jobs...