Technical skill bias as a response of firms to unemployment: A matching model with applicant ranking and endogenous skill requirements

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2009
Volume: 16
Issue: 3
Pages: 304-310

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

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

Abstract

This paper considers an economy with heterogeneous workers where identical firms optimally decide on the degree of complexity of jobs. Meetings are depicted by an urn-ball process where firms rank their applicants and pick the best one. We show that a general rise in unemployment induces an increase in the employment shares of high-skilled workers which, in turn, makes firms choose more complex jobs, leading then to a decrease in the output of low-skilled workers. The technical skill bias is therefore related to the usual explanations of unemployment. Next, we state that a decentralized equilibrium is efficient in terms of job complexity but inefficient in terms of job creation when firms internalize the usual congestion effect. We then extend the analysis to a dynamic model.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:16:y:2009:i:3:p:304-310
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-25