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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 10 2015

Efficient Firm Dynamics in a Frictional Labor Market

Leo Kaas1; Philipp Kircher2

1 Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany (e-mail: ) · 2 School of Economics, University of Edinburgh, 30 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JT (e-mail: )

open access

Abstract

We develop and analyze a labor market model in which heterogeneous firms operate under decreasing returns and compete for labor by posting long-term contracts. Firms achieve faster growth by offering higher lifetime wages, which allows them to fill vacancies with higher probability, consistent with recent empirical findings. The model also captures several other regularities about firm size, job flows, and pay, and generates sluggish aggregate dynamics of labor market variables. In contrast to existing bargaining models with large firms, efficiency obtains and the model allows a tractable characterization over the business cycle.

DOI
10.1257/aer.20131702
Volume
105
Issue
10
Pages
3030-3060
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib

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