In Search of Labor Demand

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Beaudry, Paul; Green, David A.; Sand, Ben M.
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; York University - Canada
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141374
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2714-2757
• 关键词: minimum-wage; employment determination; Bargaining theory; market outcomes; equilibrium; immigration; IMPACT; adjustment; CONTRACTS; DYNAMICS

摘要

We propose and estimate a novel specification of labor demand which encompasses search frictions and the role of entrepreneurs in new firm creation. Using city-industry variation over four decades, we estimate the wage elasticity of employment demand to be close to -1 at the industry-city level and -0.3 at the city level. We argue that the difference between these estimates reflects the congestion externalities predicted by the search literature. Our estimates also indicate that entrepreneurship should be treated as a scarce factor in the determination of labor demand. We use our estimates to evaluate the impact of large changes in the minimum wage on employment.