labor market thesis

The thesis uses micro data and quasi experimental research designs to test three theories about labor markets. The first chapter tests a leading explanation for top income growth, the superstar effect. The superstar effect attributes rising top incomes to expanding market reach of workers. I identify a case of exogenous market reach expansion in the entertainment sector and study the labor market effects. Incomes become markedly more concentrated on the top when entertainers can reach a bigger audience. Wages of stars grow 17% in response to a fourfold increase in market reach. A distinctive pattern of wage changes distinguishes the superstar model from alternative explanations. Growth of top pay occurs simultaneously with widening income differences at the top, a decline in middleincome jobs, an increase in low-paid jobs and a fall in total entertainer employment. The second chapter tests how labor supply responds to improving entertainment technology. To identify the effect the chapter tracks the roll-out of TV signal. Social security records show that labor supply drops significantly with the introduction of TV. The effects are most pronounced for older workers, in line with descriptive evidence on changing retirement habits. The chapter shows that monetary spending substantially understates the value attached to TV. The third chapter studies the canonical search and matching model and shows that accounting for realistic job search helps the model to account for labor market fluctuations and addresses the “Shimer puzzle.” The chapter provides evidence that reservation wages significantly respond to backward-looking reference points. Introducing such reference-dependent job search to the model reconciles predictions on the cyclicality of both wages and reservation wages with the data. Other proposed solutions to the unemployment volatility and wage flexibility puzzle that hinge on alterations to the wage setting mechanism only work for parameter values outside the range typically estimated.

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Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market

This paper synthesizes the economics literature on skills and human capital, with a particular focus on higher-order capacities like social and decision-making skills. We review the empirical evidence on returns to human capital from both a micro and macro perspective, as well as the evidence on returns to human capital investment over the life-cycle. We highlight two key limitations of human capital theory as currently implemented. First, prior work mostly assumes that human capital is one-dimensional and can be measured by education or test scores alone. Second, human capital is typically modeled as augmenting the marginal product of labor with workers being treated as factors of production, just like physical capital. We argue for a new approach that treats workers as agents who decide how to allocate their labor over job tasks. Traditional cognitive skills make workers more productive in any task, while higher-order skills govern workers’ choices of which tasks to perform and whether to work alone or in a team. We illustrate the value of this approach with stylized models that incorporate teamwork and decision-making skills and generate predictions about how returns to skills vary across contexts.

This is a a preliminary chapter in preparation for the Handbook of Labor Economics. We thank Christian Dustmann and Thomas Lemieux for their thoughtful comments and wise editorial judgment, and conference participants from the Rockwool Foundation gathering in Berlin for helpful feedback. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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The Labor Market In the Summer of 2022: Trends and challenges

Monitoring of Russia's economic Outlook. Trends and Challenges of Socio-Economic Development. Moscow. IEP. 2022. No. 11, pp. 11-14

4 Pages Posted: 22 Mar 2023

Victor Lyashok

Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA) - Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting

Date Written: November 2, 2022

The unemployment rate continued declining in the summer of 2022, hitting 3.8% by August, which can be explained by the weak effect of sanctions and the outflow of some unemployed men to voluntary military service during the summer months. Despite the fact that the number of vacancies is decreasing, by mid-September the share of respondents who assessed the risks of losing their job next month as low increased. Compared with March of this year, the share of workers who believe it is difficult or very difficult to find a job with similar wages and working conditions declined in September. Unemployed workers were generally more positive about the likelihood of finding a job.

Keywords: Russian economy, labor market

JEL Classification: J60, J23

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Victor Lyashok (Contact Author)

Russian academy of national economy and public administration under the president of the russian federation (ranepa) - institute of social analysis and forecasting ( email ).

Prechistenskaya naberezhnaya 11 Moscow, Moscow 119034 Russia

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