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Endogenous Separations, Wage Rigidities, and Unemployment Volatility

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  • Mikael Carlsson
  • Andreas Westermark

Abstract

We show that in microdata, as well as in a search and matching model with flexible wages for new hires, wage rigidities of incumbent workers have substantial effects on separations and unemployment volatility. Allowing for an empirically relevant degree of wage rigidities for incumbent workers drives unemployment volatility as well as the volatility of vacancies and tightness to that in the data. Thus, the degree of wage rigidity for newly hired workers is not a sufficient statistic for determining the effect of wage rigidities on macroeconomic outcomes. This finding affects the interpretation of a large empirical literature on wage rigidities.

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  • Mikael Carlsson & Andreas Westermark, 2022. "Endogenous Separations, Wage Rigidities, and Unemployment Volatility," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 332-354, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:332-54
    DOI: 10.1257/mac.20180314
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    Cited by:

    1. Häkkinen Skans, Iida & Carlsson, Mikael & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2017. "Wage Flexibility in a Unionized Economy with Stable Wage Dispersion," Working Papers 149, National Institute of Economic Research.
    2. Christian Merkl & Heiko Stüber, 2019. "Value added, wages and labour market flows at the establishment level," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 135-142, January.
    3. Merkl, Christian & Stüber, Heiko, 2024. "Wage and employment cyclicalities at the establishment level," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Gottfries, A. & Teulings, T., 2017. "Wage Posting, Nominal Rigidity, and Cyclical Inefficiencies," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1736, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Axel Gottfries, 2018. "Partial commitment in models of on-the-job search with an application to minimum wage spillovers," 2018 Meeting Papers 567, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Teulings, Coen & Gottfries, Axel, 2017. "Wage posting, nominal rigidity, and cyclical inefficiencies," CEPR Discussion Papers 12316, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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