IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/11040.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Japan's Labor Market Cyclicality and the Volatility Puzzle

Author

Listed:
  • Julen ESTEBAN-PRETEL
  • Ryo NAKAJIMA
  • Ryuichi TANAKA

Abstract

The search and matching model has recently come under criticism for its inability to account for some of the cyclical properties of the U.S. labor market. Shimer (2005) has shown that the basic version of the model is incapable of reproducing the volatility of the market tightness for reasonable movements in productivity. This paper considers whether the so-called "Shimer Puzzle" also holds for the Japanese economy. We present empirical evidence on the cyclical properties of the labor market variables in Japan and compare these to their U.S. counterparts. We then build, parametrize, and simulate three different versions of the search and matching model (with exogenous job destruction, with endogenous job destruction, and embedded in a Real Business Cycle model) and compare the simulated statistics to the data. We find that the "Shimer Puzzle" does hold for Japan, since the model is unable to generate as much volatility on the market tightness as in the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Julen ESTEBAN-PRETEL & Ryo NAKAJIMA & Ryuichi TANAKA, 2011. "Japan's Labor Market Cyclicality and the Volatility Puzzle," Discussion papers 11040, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:11040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/11e040.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esteban-Pretel, Julen & Nakajima, Ryo & Tanaka, Ryuichi, 2010. "TFP growth slowdown and the Japanese labor market in the 1990s," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 50-68, March.
    2. Cooley, Thomas F. & Quadrini, Vincenzo, 1999. "A neoclassical model of the Phillips curve relation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 165-193, 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. Noritaka Kudoh & Hiroaki Miyamoto & Masaru Sasaki, 2019. "Employment and Hours over the Business Cycle in a Model with Search Frictions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 436-461, January.
    2. Amaral, Pedro S. & Tasci, Murat, 2016. "The cyclical behavior of equilibrium unemployment and vacancies across OECD countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 184-201.
    3. Yoshino, Naoyuki & Miyamoto, Hiroaki, 2017. "Declined effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policies faced with aging population in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 32-44.
    4. Miyamoto Hiroaki, 2016. "Growth and non-regular employment," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 523-554, June.
    5. Lin, Ching-Yang & Miyamoto, Hiroaki, 2014. "An estimated search and matching model of the Japanese labor market," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 86-104.
    6. Ching-Yang Lin & Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2012. "Estimating a Search and Matching Model of the Aggregate Labor Market in Japan," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-850, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    7. Yoshino, Naoyuki & Miyamoto, Hiroaki, 2017. "Decreased Effectiveness of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Japan’s Aging Society," ADBI Working Papers 691, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    8. Kato, Ryuta Ray & Miyamoto, Hiroaki, 2013. "Fiscal stimulus and labor market dynamics in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 33-58.
    9. Ryuta Ray Kato & Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2015. "Effects of Fiscal Stimulus on the Labor Market," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 11(2), pages 277-302, March.
    10. Hiroshi Morita & Hidekazu Niwa, 2021. "An Effect of Population Aging on the Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy: Analysis using a panel VAR model," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 17(3), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Chun-Hung Kuo & Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2016. "Unemployment and Wage Rigidity in Japan: A DSGE Model Perspective," Working Papers EMS_2016_06, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/293qice3lj861rvos9ns14n0h0 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/293qice3lj861rvos9ns14n0h0 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Guglielminetti, Elisa & Pouraghdam, Meradj, 2018. "Time-varying job creation and macroeconomic shocks," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 156-179.
    15. Masanori Kashiwagi, 2015. "The Cyclical Properties of Unemployment and Vacancies in Taiwan," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 588-607, October.
    16. Esteban-Pretel, Julen & Fujimoto, Junichi, 2012. "Life-cycle search, match quality and Japan’s labor market," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 326-350.

    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. David Andolfatto & Paul Gomme, 2003. "Monetary Policy Regimes and Beliefs," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-30, February.
    2. Shigeru Fujita, 2011. "Dynamics of worker flows and vacancies: evidence from the sign restriction approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 89-121, January/F.
    3. Antonella Trigari, 2006. "The Role of Search Frictions and Bargaining for Inflation Dynamics," Working Papers 304, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    4. Dennis Wesselbaum, 2014. "Firing tax vs severance payments – an unequal comparison," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(5), pages 721-736, September.
    5. Nika Lazaryan & Thomas A. Lubik, 2019. "Global dynamics in a search and matching model of the labor market," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 68(2), pages 461-497, September.
    6. Moyen, Stephane & Sahuc, Jean-Guillaume, 2005. "Incorporating labour market frictions into an optimising-based monetary policy model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 159-186, January.
    7. Benjamín García & Sebastián Guarda & Markus Kirchner & Rodrigo Tranamil, 2019. "XMAS: An extended model for analysis and simulations," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 833, Central Bank of Chile.
    8. Luis F. Melo & Álvaro Riascos, 2004. "Sobre los efectos de la política monetaria en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 22(45), pages 172-221, June.
    9. Federico Ravenna & Carl E. Walsh, 2011. "Welfare-Based Optimal Monetary Policy with Unemployment and Sticky Prices: A Linear-Quadratic Framework," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 130-162, April.
    10. Dennis Wesselbaum, 2015. "Firing costs in a business cycle model with endogenous separations," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(3), pages 499-518, August.
    11. Reinout De Bock, 2007. "Investment-Specific Technology Shocks and Labor Market Frictions," Working Paper Research 108, National Bank of Belgium.
    12. Ivan Jaccard, 2024. "Monetary Asymmetries Without (And With) Price Stickiness," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(2), pages 1003-1047, May.
    13. Federico Ravenna & Carl E. Walsh, 2009. "The welfare consequences of monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2009-12, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    14. Dave Andolfatto & Scott Hendry & Kevin Moran, 2004. "Labour markets, liquidity, and monetary policy regimes," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 392-420, May.
    15. Julen Esteban-Pretel & Elisa Faraglia, 2005. "Monetary Shocks in a Model with Loss of Skills," 2005 Meeting Papers 328, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Fujita, Shigeru & Fujiwara, Ippei, 2023. "Aging and the real interest rate in Japan: A labor market channel," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    17. Juan Guerra-Salas & Markus Kirchner & Rodrigo Tranamil, 2021. "Search Frictions and the Business Cycle in a Small Open Economy DSGE Model," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 39, pages 258-279, January.
    18. Gunji, Hiroshi & Miyazaki, Kenji, 2011. "Estimates of average marginal tax rates on factor incomes in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 81-106, June.
    19. Koursaros, Demetris, 2017. "Labor market dynamics when (un)employment is a social norm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 96-116.
    20. Colombo, Luca & Weinrich, Gerd, 2003. "The Phillips curve as a long-run phenomenon in a macroeconomic model with complex dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-26, October.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eti:dpaper:11040. 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: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    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.