This paper analyzes how the levels of unemployment and vacancies affect the rate at which unemployed workers find employment--the worker-firm 'matching function.' In particular, the authors test the robustness of previous empirical work by checking whether they obtain the same estimated function...

This paper explores the link between technological change and the dynamics of the earnings distribution and production. Technological change not only advances society's collective capability but also changes the relative productivities of its members. This latter effect establishes the likely...

This paper investigates job matching patterns in Great Britain. Evidence from individual transitions out of unemployment demonstrates that recently unemployed workers are likely to find jobs in the existing stock of vacancies. If, however, they are unlucky and fail to match early on, job seekers...

We construct a model of the housing market in which agents differ in their flow values while searching. Agents enter the market relaxed (with high flow values) but move to a desperate state (low flow values) at a Poisson rate if they have not already transacted. We characterize the equilibrium...

If access to credit is limited (especially when young or unemployed) but ”bad” jobs are easy to come by, then job seekers might use short term employment in undesirable jobs as a way to finance consumption during subsequent unemployed search for a “good” job. In this paper we explore...

If buyers cannot observe product characteristics, they search available sellers to find better matches. In this situation, market go-betweens who 'manage' a variety of products emerge, offering consumers a variety of trading opportunities which reduce the uncertainty of search and improve the...

In order to explain in a systematic way why certain combinations of market, financial, and legal structures may be intrinsic to certain capabilities to exchange real goods, we introduce criteria for abstracting the qualitative functions of markets. The criteria involve the number of strategic...