the Dynamics of unemployment and wage Distributions .

Postel-Vinay and Robin’s (2002) sequential auction model is extended to allow for aggregate productivity shocks. Workers exhibit permanent differences in ability while firms are identical. Negative aggregate productivity shocks induce job destruction by driving the surplus of matches with low ability workers to negative values. Endogenous job destruction coupled with worker heterogeneity thus provides a mechanism for amplifying productivity shocks that offers an original solution to the unemployment volatility puzzle (Shimer (2005)). Moreover, positive or negative shocks may lead employers and employees to renegotiate low wages up and high wages down when agents’ individual surpluses become negative. The model delivers rich business cycle dynamics of wage distributions and explains why both low wages and high wages are more procyclical than wages in the middle of the distribution.Unemployment dynamics, wage distribution, inequality, search-matching;

Marriage with Labor Supply

We propose a search-matching model of the marriage market that extends Shimer and Smith (2000) to allow for labor supply. We characterize the steady-state equilibrium when exogenous divorce is the only source of risk. The estimated matching probabilities that can be derived from the steady-state flow conditions are strongly increasing in both male and female wages. We estimate that the share of marriage surplus appropriated by the man increases with his wage and that the share appropriated by the woman decreases with her wage. We find that leisure is an inferior good for men and a normal good for women.Marriage search model, collective labor supply, structural estimation.

On the spin-2 Kaluza-Klein spectrum of AdS4 x S2(B4)

We perform a numerical study of the four-dimensional spin-2 Kaluza-Klein spectrum of supersymmetric AdS$_4\times S^2(\mathcal{B}_4)$ vacua and show that they do not exhibit scale separation. Our methods are generally applicable to similar problems where the compactification geometry is not known analytically, hence an analytic treatment of the spectrum of Kaluza-Klein masses is not available.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Expertise or Experience: What Raises Pay?

An equilibrium job search model with on-the-job-search is presented and solved, in which we allow firms to implement optimal wage posting strategies in the sense that they leave no rent to their employees and counter the offers received by their employees from competing firms. Cross-firm productivity dispersion arises endogenously in equilibrium. The model delivers a hump-shaped aggregate earnings distribution that reflects both firm- and worker-heterogeneity. The model also generates plausible individual career paths on the basis of which it is estimated, using a French panel of wages over the period 1994-96.

An international comparison of lifetime labor income values and inequality:a bounds approach

We compare earnings inequality and mobility across the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. during the late 1990s. A flexible model of earnings dynamics that isolates mobility within a stable earnings distribution, allowing, or not, for fixed effects is estimated. Earnings trajectories are then simulated given baseyear earnings and lifetime annuity value distributions are constructed. Equalizing mobility is positively correlated with earnings inequality. The models with and without fixed effects provide upper and lower bounds, respectively, on the resultant lifetime inequality levels, and reveal that the countries have more similar long run inequality levels than cross-section measures suggest

Generalized nonparametric deconvolution with an application to earnings dynamics

In this paper,we construct a nonparametric estimator of the distributions of latent factors in linear independent multi-factor models under the assumption that factor loadings are known. Our approach allows to estimate the distributions of up to L(L+1)/2 factors given L measurements. The estimator works through empirical characteristic functions. We show that it is consistent, and derive asymptotic convergence rates. Monte-Carlo simulations show good finite-sample performance, less so if distributions are highly skewed or leptokurtic. We finally apply the generalized deconvolution procedure to decompose individual log earnings from the PSID into permanent and transitory components

Labor market reforms and unemployment dynamics

In this paper, we quantify the contribution of labor market reforms to unemployment dynamics in nine OECD countries (Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States). We build and estimate a dynamic stochastic search-matching model with heterogeneous workers, where aggregate shocks to productivity fuel up the cycle, and unanticipated policy interventions shift structural parameters and displace the long-term equilibrium. We show that the heterogeneous-worker mechanism proposed by Robin (2011) to explain unemployment volatility by productivity shocks works well in all countries. The amount of resources injected into placement and employment services, the reduction of UI benefits and product market deregulation stand out as the most prominent policy levers for unemployment reduction. All other LMPs have a significant but lesser impact. We also find that business cycle shocks and LMPs explain about the same share of unemployment volatility (except for Japan, Portugal and the US)

Career progression and formal versus on-the-job training

We model the choice of individuals to follow or not apprenticeship training and their subsequent career. We use German administrative data, which records education, labour market transitions and wages to estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of training choice, employment and wage growth. The model allows for returns to experience and tenure, match specific effects, job mobility and search frictions. We show how apprenticeship training affects labour market careers and we quantify its benefits, relative to the overall costs. We then use our model to show how two welfare reforms change life-cycle decisions and human capital accumulation: One is the introduction of an Earned Income Tax Credit in Germany, and the other is a reform to Unemployment Insurance. In both reforms we find very significant impacts of the policy on training choices and on the value of realized matches, demonstrating the importance of considering such longer term implications.

Generalized nonparametric deconvolution with an application to earnings dynamics - Published Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 77, Issue 2, pp. 491-533, 2010

In this paper,we construct a nonparametric estimator of the distributions of latent factors in linear independent multi-factor models under the assumption that factor loadings are known. Our approach allows to estimate the distributions of up to L(L+1)/2 factors given L measurements. The estimator works through empirical characteristic functions. We show that it is consistent, and derive asymptotic convergence rates. Monte-Carlo simulations show good finite-sample performance, less so if distributions are highly skewed or leptokurtic. We finally apply the generalized deconvolution procedure to decompose individual log earnings from the PSID into permanent and transitory components