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Wage Offers and On-the-job Search

Author

Listed:
  • Potter, Tristan

    (Drexel University)

  • Bernhardt, Dan

    (University of Illinois)

Abstract

We study the wage-setting problem of an employer with private information about demand for its product when workers can engage in costly on-the-job search. Employers understand that low wage offers may convey bad news that induces workers to search. The unique perfect sequential equilibrium wage strategy is characterized by: (i) pooling by intermediate-revenue employers on a common wage that just deters search; (ii) discontinuously lower revealing offers by low-revenue employers for whom the benefit of deterring search fails to warrant the required high pooling wage; and (iii) high revealing offers by high-revenue employers seeking to deter aggressive poachers.

Suggested Citation

  • Potter, Tristan & Bernhardt, Dan, 2018. "Wage Offers and On-the-job Search," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2018-7, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, revised 14 Oct 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2018_007
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert E. Hall & Andreas I. Mueller, 2018. "Wage Dispersion and Search Behavior: The Importance of Nonwage Job Values," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1594-1637.
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    5. George A. Akerlof & William R. Dickens & George L. Perry, 1996. "The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1), pages 1-76.
    6. Peter Gottschalk, 2005. "Downward Nominal-Wage Flexibility: Real or Measurement Error?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 556-568, August.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage offers; on-the-job search; signaling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

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