Endogenous Disasters

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2018
Volume: 108
Issue: 8
Pages: 2212-45

Authors (3)

Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau (not in RePEc) Lu Zhang (Ohio State University) Lars-Alexander Kuehn (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

Market economies are intrinsically unstable. The standard search model of equilibrium unemployment, once solved accurately with a globally nonlinear algorithm, gives rise endogenously to rare disasters. Intuitively, in the presence of cumulatively large negative shocks, inertial wages remain relatively high, and reduce profits. The marginal costs of hiring run into downward rigidity, which stems from the trading externality of the matching process, and fail to decline relative to profits. Inertial wages and rigid hiring costs combine to stifle job creation flows, depressing the economy into disasters. The disaster dynamics are robust to extensions to home production, capital accumulation, and recursive utility.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:8:p:2212-45
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29