Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Why More Educated Workers Enjoy Greater Employment Stability

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cairo, Isabel; Cajner, Tomaz
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12441
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 652-682
• 关键词: cyclical behavior; matching model; the-job; equilibrium unemployment; European unemployment; heterogeneous jobs; labor-markets; search; insurance; mobility

摘要

Why do more educated workers experience lower unemployment rates and lower employment volatility? Empirically, these workers have similar job finding rates but much lower and less volatile separation rates than their less educated peers. We argue that on-the-job training, being complementary to formal education, is the reason for this pattern. Using a search and matching model with endogenous separations, we show that investments in match-specific human capital reduce incentives to separate but leave the job finding rate essentially unaffected. The model generates unemployment dynamics quantitatively consistent with the data. Finally, we provide novel empirical evidence supporting the mechanism studied in the article.