IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/spmain/hal-03588639.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

General versus Specific Skills in Labor Markets with Search Frictions and Firing Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Etienne Wasmer

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Human capital investments are not independent of the aggregate state of labor markets: frictions and slackness of the labor market raise the returns to specific human capital investments relative to general investments. We build a macroeconomic model with two pure strategy regimes. In the pure G-regime, workers invest in general skills. This occurs when they face high turnover labor markets and in the absence of employment protection. The pure 5-regime in which workers invest in skills specific to their job appears when employment protection is high enough. Implications for a characterization of Europe-United States differences are provided in conclusion. (JEL: J63, J30)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Etienne Wasmer, 1996. "General versus Specific Skills in Labor Markets with Search Frictions and Firing Costs," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03588639, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03588639
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.96.3.811
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertola, Giuseppe & Rogerson, Richard, 1997. "Institutions and labor reallocation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1147-1171, June.
    2. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9041 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Mortensen, Dale T. & Pissarides, Christopher A., 1999. "Job reallocation, employment fluctuations and unemployment," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 1171-1228, Elsevier.
    4. Rogerson, Richard & Schindler, Martin, 2002. "The welfare costs of worker displacement," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(6), pages 1213-1234, September.
    5. Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas J. Sargent, 2004. "European Unemployment and Turbulence Revisited in a Matching Model," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 456-468, 04/05.
    6. Ana Lamo & Julian Messina & Etienne Wasmer, 2006. "Are Specific Skills an Obstacle to Labor Market Adjustment? Theory and an Application to the EU Enlargement," Working Papers hal-03459097, HAL.
    7. Lamo, Ana & Messina, Julián & Wasmer, Etienne, 2011. "Are specific skills an obstacle to labor market adjustment?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 240-256, April.
    8. John Hassler & José V. Rodríguez Mora & Kjetil Storesletten & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2005. "A Positive Theory Of Geographic Mobility And Social Insurance," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(1), pages 263-303, February.
    9. Edward P. Lazear, 2009. "Firm-Specific Human Capital: A Skill-Weights Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(5), pages 914-940, October.
    10. Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas J. Sargent, 1998. "The European Unemployment Dilemma," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(3), pages 514-550, June.
    11. Pedro Portugal & Olivier Blanchard, 2001. "What Hides Behind an Unemployment Rate: Comparing Portuguese and U.S. Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 187-207, March.
    12. Eric D. Gould, 2002. "Rising Wage Inequality, Comparative Advantage, and the Growing Importance of General Skills in the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(1), pages 105-147, January.
    13. Mortensen, Dale & Pissarides, Christopher, 2011. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    14. repec:bla:scandj:v:94:y:1992:i:3:p:479-89 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Blanchard, Olivier & Wolfers, Justin, 2000. "The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 1-33, March.
    16. Giuseppe Bertola & Andrea Ichino, 1995. "Wage Inequality and Unemployment: United States versus Europe," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 13-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Edward P. Lazear, 1990. "Job Security Provisions and Employment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 699-726.
    18. Acemoglu, Daron & Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1999. "Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labour Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(453), pages 112-142, February.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9041 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Richard Rogerson, 2005. "Sectoral Shocks, Specific Human Capital and Displaced Workers," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 8(1), pages 89-105, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Wasmer, Etienne, 2002. "Interpreting Europe and US Labor Markets Differences: The Specificity of Human Capital Investments," IZA Discussion Papers 549, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Etienne Wasmer, 2006. "Interpreting Europe and US labor markets differences : the specificity of human capital investments," SciencePo Working papers hal-01021294, HAL.
    3. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8904 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8904 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8904 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8904 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/9064 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Etienne Wasmer & Peter Fredriksson & Ana Lamo & Julian Messina & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "The Macroeconomics of Education," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03458955, HAL.
    9. Andrea Vindigni & Simone Scotti & Cristina Tealdi, 2015. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 209-267.
    10. Etienne Wasmer & Peter Fredriksson & Ana Lamo & Julian Messina & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "The Macroeconomics of Education," Post-Print hal-03458955, HAL.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9064 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9064 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9064 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Etienne Lalé, 2018. "Turbulence and the employment experience of older workers," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 735-784, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Wasmer, Etienne, 2003. "Interpreting European and US Labour Market Differences: The Specificity of Human Capital Investments," CEPR Discussion Papers 3780, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Ricardo Lagos, 2007. "A Model of Job and Worker Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 770-819, October.
    18. Lamo, Ana & Messina, Julián & Wasmer, Etienne, 2011. "Are specific skills an obstacle to labor market adjustment?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 240-256, April.
    19. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-034 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Johannes Hörner & L. Rachel Ngai & Claudia Olivetti, 2007. "Public Enterprises And Labor Market Performance," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(2), pages 363-384, May.
    21. Andrea Vindigni, 2008. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 77, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    22. Bachmann, Ronald, 2005. "Skill mismatch in equilibrium unemployment," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2005-034, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    23. Cook, David & Xu, Juanyi, 2015. "Eurosclerosis and international business cycles," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 54-67.
    24. Bjoern Bruegemann, 2005. "Does Employment Protection Create Its Own Political Support? The Role of Wage Determination," 2005 Meeting Papers 811, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    25. Yashiv, Eran, 2007. "Labor search and matching in macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1859-1895, November.
    26. Boeri, Tito & Burda, Michael C., 2004. "Preferences for Rigid versus Individualized Wage Setting in Search Economies with Frictions," IZA Discussion Papers 1133, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    27. Yu‐Fu Chen & Dennis Snower & Gylfi Zoega, 2003. "Labour‐market Institutions and Macroeconomic Shocks," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(2), pages 247-270, June.
    28. Fella Giulio, 2012. "Matching, Wage Rigidities and Efficient Severance Pay," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-35, December.
    29. Björn Brügemann, 2012. "Does Employment Protection Create Its Own Political Support?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 369-416, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

    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:hal:spmain:hal-03588639. 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: Contact - Sciences Po Departement of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.