Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to compare two elements of lay-off costs in a dynamic model of the labor market and analyze the differences for business cycle dynamics and welfare. Design/methodology/approach–The paper builds a general equilibrium Real Business Cycle model and...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>This article estimates a stylised search-and-matching model on data for Australia, covering the period 1978–2008. Using Bayesian methods, I find that the model does a fairly good job in replicating the data. Surprisingly, I find a large value for the worker's...</p>

This paper provides evidence for the size of firing costs for eight countries. In contrast to the existing literature, we use the optimality conditions obtained in a search and matching model to find a reduced form equation for firing costs. We find that our estimates are slightly larger...

This paper aims to characterize the interactions between fiscal and monetary and policy in New Zealand. We estimate a multivariate Markov-switching model and document frequent policy switches. We identify two regime: accommodative and non-accommodative monetary policy. In the non-accommodative...

This paper studies sectoral effects of fiscal spending. We estimate a New Keynesian model with search and matching frictions and two sectors. Fiscal spending is either wasteful (consumption) or productivity enhancing (investment). Using U.S. data we find significant differences across sectors....

Die aktuelle energiepolitische Debatte hat die längerfristigen Perspektiven einer nachhaltigen Energieversorgung allzu sehr aus dem Blick verloren. Vor allem die Potentiale der Kernfusion werden in der öffentlichen Diskussion kaum wahrgenommen. Dabei würden sich viele Probleme, die mit dem...

The efficiency wage theory developed by Akerlof (1982) assumes observability of effort and the ability of firm and worker to commit on their effort/wage decisions. We show that, from a game theoretical point of view, we have to understand the firm/worker relationship as a repeated Prisoner's...

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...

Empirical evidence indicates that lay-off costs consist of two elements, namely firing costs and severance payments. This paper investigates business cycle and steady state effects of firing costs and severance payments and discusses the differences. We find that severance payments imply a lower...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare two elements of lay-off costs in a dynamic model of the labor market and analyze the differences for business cycle dynamics and welfare. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds a general equilibrium Real Business Cycle model and...