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Econometrica Vol. 90 No. 4 2022

Job Search Behavior Among the Employed and Non‐Employed

R. Jason Faberman1; Andreas Mueller2,3,4,5; Ayşegül Şahin2,3; Giorgio Topa6,5

1 Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago · 2 Department of Economics, The University of Texas at Austin · 3 NBER · 4 CEPR , · 5 IZA · 6 Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract

We develop a unique survey that focuses on the job search behavior of individuals regardless of their labor force status and field it annually starting in 2013. We use our survey to study the relationship between search effort and outcomes for the employed and non‐employed. Three important facts stand out: (1) on‐the‐job search is pervasive, and is more intense at the lower rungs of the job ladder; (2) the employed are at least three times more effective than the unemployed in job search; and (3) the employed receive better job offers than the unemployed. We set up a general equilibrium model of on‐the‐job search with endogenous search effort, calibrate it to fit our new facts, and find that the search effort of the employed is highly elastic. We show that search effort substantially amplifies labor market responses to productivity shocks over the business cycle.

DOI
10.3982/ecta18582
Volume
90
Issue
4
Pages
1743-1779
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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