Aggregate Recruiting Intensity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gavazza, Alessandro; Mongey, Simon; Violante, Giovanni L.
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of Chicago; Princeton University; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20161420
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2088-2127
• 关键词: Great recession; labor-markets; unemployment; PRODUCTIVITY; DYNAMICS; industry; search; GROWTH; plants; FIRMS

摘要

We develop an. equilibrium model of firm dynamics with random search in the labor market where hiring firms exert recruiting effort by spending resources to fill vacancies faster. Consistent with microevidence, fast-growing firms invest more in recruiting activities and achieve higher job-filling rates. These hiring decisions of firms aggregate into an index of economy-wide recruiting intensity. We study how aggregate shocks transmit to recruiting intensity, and whether this channel can account for the dynamics of aggregate matching efficiency during the Great Recession. Productivity and financial shocks lead to sizable procyclical fluctuations in matching efficiency through recruiting effort. Quantitatively, the main mechanism is that firms attain their employment targets by adjusting their recruiting effort in response to movements in labor market slackness.