The Cyclicality of the Opportunity Cost of Employment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chodorow-Reich, Gabriel; Karabarbounis, Loukas
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/688876
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1563-1618
• 关键词: unemployment-insurance; equilibrium unemployment; indivisible labor; consumption; VACANCIES; BEHAVIOR; rates; RISK

摘要

The flow opportunity cost of moving from unemployment to employment consists of forgone public benefits and the forgone consumption value of nonworking time. We construct a time series of the opportunity cost of employment using detailed microdata and administrative or national accounts data to estimate benefits levels, eligibility, take-up, consumption by labor force status, hours, taxes, and preference parameters. The opportunity cost is procyclical and volatile over the business cycle. The estimated cyclicality implies far less unemployment volatility in leading models of the labor market than that observed in the data, irrespective of the level of the opportunity cost.