Equilibrium Job Search and Gender Wage Differentials in the UK

The role of gender differences in labour market behaviour in determining the UK male-female wage differential is examined using the British Household Panel Study and the general equilibrium job search framework of Bowlus (1997). We find that search behaviour explains 30-35% of the gender wage differential. This is similar to US findings. Despite more generous maternity policies, females in the UK are more likely to exit to non-participation. Finally, we find the level of search friction is lower in the UK than in the US due to low job destruction rates in the UK.labour force participation ; search models ; gender wage differentials

Human Capital Prices, Productivity and Growth

Separate identification of the price and quantity of human capital has important implications for understanding key issues in economics. Price and quantity series are derived for four education levels. The price series are highly correlated and they exhibit a strong secular trend. Three resulting implications are explored: the rising college premium is found to be driven more by relative quantity than relative price changes, life-cycle wage profiles are readily interpretable as reflecting optimal human capital investment paths using the estimated price series, and adjusting the labor input for quality increases dramatically reduces the contribution of MFP to growth.Human Capital, Productivity and Growth

Equilibrium Job Search and Gender Wage Differentials in the UK

The role of gender differences in labour market behaviour in determining the UK male-female wage differential is examined using the British Household Panel Study and the general equilibrium job search framework of Bowlus(1997). We find that search behaviour explains 30-35% of the gender wage differential. This is similar to US findings. Despite more generous maternity policies, females in the UK are more likely to exit to non-participation. Finally, we find the level of search friction is lower in the UK than in the US due to low job destruction rates in the UK.

Domestic Violence, Employment and Divorce

Using unique, representative data on domestic violence, we document several stylized facts on abuse: the average characteristics of abused wives and abusive husbands are markedly different than the characteristics of individuals in non-violent marriages, the vast majority of violent marriages end in divorce, and employment rates are lower for women who experience abuse. We then construct a sequential model of employment, marriage and abuse. The results indicate abuse is the primary factor in the decision to divorce and witnessing violence as a child is a strong predictor of becoming an abusive spouse. Policy experiments suggest men are more responsive to policies designed to increase the costs of abuse than women are to policies reducing the cost of leaving violent marriages and policies designed to reduce the inter-generational effects of domestic violence may be promising strategies for preventing abuse.Domestic Violence, Abuse, Employment, Marriage, Divorce

The contributions of search and human capital to earnings growth over the life cycle

This paper presents and estimates a unified model where both human capital investment and job search are endogenized. This unification enables us to quantify the relative contributions of each mechanism to life cycle earnings growth, while investigating potential interactions between human capital investment and job search. Within the unified framework, the expectation of rising rental rates of human capital through job search gives workers more incentive to invest in human capital. In addition, unemployed workers reduce their reservation rental rates and increase their search effort to leave unemployment quickly to take advantage of human capital accumulation on the job. The results show both forces are important for earnings growth and the interactions are substantial: human capital accumulation accounts for 31% of total earnings growth, job search accounts for 46%, and the remaining 23% is due to the interactions of the two