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A Theory of Quits and Layoffs with Efficient Turnover

Kenneth J. McLaughlin

Journal of Political Economy 1991

This paper answers the efficient-turnover literature's long silence regarding the quit-layoff distinction. Treating quits as worker-initiated separations and layoffs as firm-initiated separations, I establish that the existence of layoffs is compatible with optimizing workers and firms forming and dissolving employment matches to exploit all the gains from trade. The efficient-turnover approach is shown to be consistent with many empirical regularities that distinguish quits from layoffs. Structural implications of the model are tested on data from the PSID.

DOI
10.1086/261738
Volume
99 (1)
Pages
1-29
Language
en
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