IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ptu/wpaper/w200802.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Portugal
  • John T. Addison

Abstract

Using cross-country data, we investigate the determinants of reservation wages and their course over the jobless spell. Higher unemployment benefits lead to higher reservation wages. Further, repeated observations on the same individual provide scant evidence of declining reservation wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Portugal & John T. Addison, 2008. "Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages," Working Papers w200802, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
  • Handle: RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w200802
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bportugal.pt/sites/default/files/anexos/papers/wp200802.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John T. Addison & Mário Centeno & Pedro Portugal, 2010. "Unemployment Benefits and Reservation Wages: Key Elasticities from a Stripped‐Down Job Search Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 46-59, January.
    2. Dale T. Mortensen, 1977. "Unemployment Insurance and Job Search Decisions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 30(4), pages 505-517, July.
    3. Bloemen, Hans G & Stancanelli, Elena G F, 2001. "Individual Wealth, Reservation Wages, and Transitions into Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 400-439, April.
    4. Mr. Eswar S Prasad, 2003. "What Determines the Reservation Wages of Unemployed Workers? New Evidence From German Micro Data," IMF Working Papers 2003/004, International Monetary Fund.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9704 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/9704 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Devine, Theresa J. & Kiefer, Nicolas M., 1991. "Empirical Labor Economics: The Search Approach," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195059366, Decembrie.
    8. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9704 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Bloemen, Hans G & Stancanelli, Elena G F, 2001. "Individual Wealth, Reservation Wages, and Transitions into Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 400-439, April.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9704 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Pannenberg, Markus, 2007. "Risk Aversion and Reservation Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 2806, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Alan B. Krueger & Andreas I. Mueller, 2016. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Reservation Wages," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 142-179, February.
    3. Martin Abraham & Katrin Auspurg & Sebastian Bähr & Corinna Frodermann & Stefanie Gundert & Thomas Hinz, 2013. "Unemployment and willingness to accept job offers: results of a factorial survey experiment [Arbeitslosigkeit und Stellenannahmebereitschaft: Erste Ergebnisse eines Faktoriellen Survey Moduls]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 46(4), pages 283-305, December.
    4. Mark Stater & Jeffrey B Wenger, 2017. "The Immediate Hardship of Unemployment: Evidence from the US Unemployment Insurance System," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(1), pages 17-36, January.
    5. Gerards, Ruud & Welters, Ricardo, 2016. "Impact of financial pressure on unemployed job search, job find success and job quality," ROA Research Memorandum 008, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    6. Rasmus Lentz & Torben Tranas, 2005. "Job Search and Savings: Wealth Effects and Duration Dependence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(3), pages 467-490, July.
    7. Mário Centeno & Álvaro A. Novo, 2014. "Do Low-Wage Workers React Less to Longer Unemployment Benefits? Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(2), pages 185-207, April.
    8. Nordlund, Madelende & Strandh, Mattias, 2014. "The relation between economic and non-economic incentives to work and employment chances among the unemployed," Working Paper Series 2014:23, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    9. Humpert, Stephan & Pfeifer, Christian, 2013. "Explaining age and gender differences in employment rates : a labor supply side perspective," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 46(1), pages 1-17.
    10. Hila Axelrad & Israel Luski & Miki Malul, 2017. "Reservation Wages and the Unemployment of Older Workers," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 206-227, June.
    11. Abraham, Martin & Auspurg, Katrin & Bähr, Sebastian & Frodermann, Corinna & Gundert, Stefanie & Hinz, Thomas, 2013. "Unemployment and willingness to accept job offers : results of a factorial survey experiment (Arbeitslosigkeit und Stellenannahmebereitschaft : Erste Ergebnisse eines Faktoriellen Survey Moduls)," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 46(4), pages 283-305.
    12. Robert Shimer & Iván Werning, 2007. "Reservation Wages and Unemployment Insurance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1145-1185.
    13. Luz A. Florez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & Carlos Esteban Posada, 2021. "Estimating the reservation wage across city groups in Colombia: A stochastic frontier approach," Borradores de Economia 1163, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    14. Tricia Gladden & Michelle Alexopoulos, 2004. "The Effects of Wealth, and Unemployment Benefits on Search Behavior and Labor Market Transitions," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 517, Econometric Society.
    15. María A. Davia & Óscar D. Marcenaro-Gutiérrez, 2007. "Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation wages in Southern Europe," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2007/13, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    16. Liina Malk, 2015. "Determinants of reservation wages: empirical evidence for Estonia," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2014-8, Bank of Estonia, revised 20 Jan 2015.
    17. María Angeles Davia & Oscar D. Marcenaro Gutiérrez, 2008. "Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 186(3), pages 91-121, October.
    18. Rendon Sílvio, 2006. "Job Search And Asset Accumulation Under Borrowing Constraints ," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(1), pages 233-263, February.
    19. Barbara Petrongolo & Christopher Pissarides, 2006. "Scale Effects in Markets with Search," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 21-44, January.
    20. François Fontaine & Janne Nyborg Jensen & Rune Vejlin, 2024. "Wealth, Portfolios, and Nonemployment Duration," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(7), pages 1861-1886, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

    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:ptu:wpaper:w200802. 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: DEE-NTD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdpgvpt.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.