Quantifying the Contribution of Search to Wage Inequality

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
Year: 2014
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
Pages: 134-61

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We empirically establish that one-third of job transitions leads to wage losses. Using a quantitative on-the-job search model, we find that 60 percent of them are movements down the job ladder. Accounting for them, our baseline calibration matches the large residual wage inequality in US data while attributing only 13.7 percent of overall wage inequality to the presence of search frictions in the labor market. We can trace the difference between ours and previous much higher estimates to our explicit modeling of nonvalue improving job-to-job transitions.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejmac:v:6:y:2014:i:1:p:134-61
Journal Field
Macro
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29