Open AccessTHE CONSEQUENCES OF RIGID WAGES IN SEARCH MODELS
Author(s) -
Shimer Robert
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of the european economic association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.792
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1542-4774
pISSN - 1542-4766
DOI - 10.1162/154247604323068159
Subject(s) - economics , labour economics , microeconomics
The standard theory of equilibrium unemployment, the Mortensen—Pissarides search and matching model, cannot explain the magnitude of the business cycle fluctuations in two of its central elements, unemployment and vacancies. Modifying the model to make the present value of wages unresponsive to current labor market conditions amplifies fluctuations in unemployment and vacancies by an order of magnitude, significantly improving the performance of the model. Despite this, the welfare consequences of such rigid wages is negligible. (JEL: E24, E32, J30, J41, J63, J64)
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