Specific Human Capital and Wait Unemployment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Herz, Benedikt
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/700190
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 467-508
• 关键词: instrumental variables; wages rise; regression; duration; mismatch; layoffs; search

摘要

A displaced worker might rationally prefer to wait through a long spell of unemployment instead of seeking employment at a lower wage in a job he is not trained for. I evaluate this trade-off using micro data on displaced workers. To achieve identification, I exploit the fact that the more a worker has invested in occupation-specific human capital, the more costly it is for him to switch occupations and therefore the higher is his incentive to wait. I find that between 9% and 17% of total unemployment in the United States can be attributed to wait unemployment.