IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejmac/vtopics.6y2006i1n13.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Allocation of Labor and Endogenous Search Decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Uren Lawrence

    (University of Melbourne)

Abstract

This paper examines the allocation of heterogeneous workers across sectors of an economy in which workers are able to direct their search towards particular firms. We find that search frictions, in addition to causing unemployment, may result in an inefficient allocation of labor. This result arises because of the interaction between the investment decisions of firms and the search decisions of workers. Despite constant returns to scale in both the matching and production functions, this interaction can generate multiple equilibria. The existence of multiple equilibria is shown to depend crucially on the direction of comparative advantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Uren Lawrence, 2006. "The Allocation of Labor and Endogenous Search Decisions," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-31, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:topics.6:y:2006:i:1:n:13
    DOI: 10.2202/1534-5998.1424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1534-5998.1424
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1534-5998.1424?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Espen R. Moen, 2003. "Do good workers hurt bad workers-or is it the other way around?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(2), pages 779-800, May.
    2. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    3. Davidson, Carl & Martin, Lawrence & Matusz, Steven, 1988. "The Structure of Simple General Equilibrium Models with Frictional Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(6), pages 1267-1293, December.
    4. Hosios, Arthur J, 1990. "Factor Market Search and the Structure of Simple General Equilibrium Models," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 325-355, April.
    5. Shouyong Shi, 2002. "A Directed Search Model of Inequality with Heterogeneous Skills and Skill-Biased Technology," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(2), pages 467-491.
    6. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, April.
    7. Acemoglu, Daron, 2001. "Good Jobs versus Bad Jobs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Assignment of Workers to Jobs in an Economy with Coordination Frictions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 996-1025, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruno Decreuse, 2008. "Choosy Search And The Mismatch Of Talents," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1067-1089, August.
    2. Merlino, Luca Paolo, 2016. "Efficient Sorting In Frictional Labor Markets With Two-Sided Heterogeneity," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 95-119, January.
    3. Nicolas L. Jacquet & Serene Tan, 2007. "On the Segmentation of Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(4), pages 639-664, August.
    4. Navarro, Lucas, 2011. "Efficiency of two sided investments in an equilibrium unemployment framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1090-1098, May.
    5. Guillaume Wilemme, 2021. "Optimal Taxation to Correct Job Mismatching," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 40, pages 170-197, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blázquez, Maite & Jansen, Marcel, 2008. "Search, mismatch and unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 498-526, April.
    2. Pieter A. Gautier & Christian L. Holzner, 2011. "Simultaneous Search and Network Efficiency," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-092/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Claudio Michelacci & Javier Suarez, 2006. "Incomplete Wage Posting," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(6), pages 1098-1123, December.
    4. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    5. Yu Sheng & Xinpeng Xu, 2010. "Trade theorems with search unemployment," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(3), pages 795-815, August.
    6. Spiros Bougheas & Carl Davidson & Richard Upward & Peter Wright, 2015. "Structural adjustment, job turnover and career progression," Gecomplexity Discussion Paper Series 14, Action IS1104 "The EU in the new complex geography of economic systems: models, tools and policy evaluation", revised Sep 2015.
    7. Spiros Bougheas & Carl Davidson & Richard Upward & Peter Wright, 2008. "Structural Adjustment, Turnover and Career Mobility," Discussion Papers 08/23, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    8. Bruno Crépon & Muriel Dejemeppe & Marc Gurgand, 2005. "Counseling the unemployed: does it lower unemployment duration and recurrence?," Working Papers halshs-00590769, HAL.
    9. Mangin, Sephorah, 2017. "A theory of production, matching, and distribution," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 376-409.
    10. Sattinger, Michael, 2006. "Overlapping labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 237-257, April.
    11. Merkl, Christian & van Rens, Thijs, 2019. "Selective hiring and welfare analysis in labor market models," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 117-130.
    12. Xinpeng Xu & Yu Sheng, 2014. "Terms of Trade Shocks and Endogenous Search Unemployment: A Two-Sector Model with Non-Traded Goods," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 201-215, May.
    13. Merlino, Luca Paolo, 2012. "Discrimination, technology and unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 557-567.
    14. Xiangbo Liu & Theodore Palivos & Xiaomeng Zhang, 2017. "Immigration, Skill Heterogeneity, And Qualification Mismatch," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1231-1264, July.
    15. Jackson, Paul, 2023. "Equilibrium underemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Maciej K. Dudek & ówna Handlowa, 2006. "On Artificial Structural Unemployment," Computing in Economics and Finance 2006 171, Society for Computational Economics.
    17. Benoît Julien & John Kennes & Ian King, 2005. "Ex post bidding and efficient coordination unemployment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 174-193, February.
    18. Philipp Kircher, 2009. "Efficiency of Simultaneous Search," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(5), pages 861-913, October.
    19. Joonbae Lee & Hanna Wang, 2021. "Ranking and Search Effort in Matching," Working Papers 1242, Barcelona School of Economics.
    20. Kennes, John & le Maire, Daniel & Roelsgaard, Sebastian T., 2020. "Equivalence of canonical matching models," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 169-182.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:topics.6:y:2006:i:1:n:13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.