What should I be when I grow up? Occupations and unemployment over the life cycle

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gervais, Martin; Jaimovich, Nir; Siu, Henry E.; Yedid-Levi, Yaniv
• 署名单位: University of Iowa; University of Southern California; University of British Columbia; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2016.08.003
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 54-70
• 关键词: Unemployment over the life cycle; Learning about occupational fit

摘要

Why is unemployment higher for younger individuals? We address this question in a frictional model of the labor market that features learning about occupational fit. In order to learn the occupation in which they are most productive, workers sample occupations over their careers. Because young workers are more likely to be in matches that represent a poor occupational fit, they spend more time in transition between occupations. Through this mechanism, our model can replicate the observed age differences in unemployment which, as in the data, are due to differences in job separation rates. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.