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Journal Article
The Survival Rate of the Smallest Establishments During the Great Recession
Very small establishments closed at about twice the rate of larger ones.
Journal Article
Earnings Losses Through Unemployment and Unemployment Duration
The longer the unemployment duration, the larger the loss.
Journal Article
Worker Types, Job Displacement, and Duration Dependence
The composition of the workforce has implications for the earnings consequences of a job loss and patterns in the job-finding rate.
Discussion Paper
Not Just “Stimulus” Checks: The Marginal Propensity to Repay Debt
Households frequently use stimulus checks to pay down existing debt. In this post, we discuss the empirical evidence on this marginal propensity to repay debt (MPRD), and we present new findings using the Survey of Consumer Expectations. We find that households with low net wealth-to-income ratios were more prone to use transfers from the CARES Act of March 2020 to pay down debt. We then show that standard models of consumption-saving behavior can be made consistent with these empirical findings if borrowers’ interest rates rise with debt. Our model suggests that fiscal policy may face a ...
Working Paper
Vocational Considerations and Trends in Social Security Disability
Along with health, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) evaluates work-limiting disability by considering vocational factors including age, education, and past work experience. As the number of SSDI applicants and awards has increased, these vocational criteria are increasingly important to acceptances and denials. A unique state-level dataset allows us to estimate how these factors relate to the SSDI award process. These estimates are used to asses how changes to the demographic and occupational composition have contributed to awards trends. In our results, the prevalence of workers ...
Working Paper
The Alpha Beta Gamma of the Labor Market
Based on patterns of employment transitions, we identify three different types of workers in the US labor market: α’s β’s and γ’s. Workers of type α make up over half of all workers, are most likely to remain on the same job for more than 2 years and, when they become unemployed, typically find a new job within 1 quarter. Workers of type γ comprise less than one-fifth of workers, have a low probability of staying on the same job for more than 2 years and, when they become unemployed, face a high probability of remaining jobless for more than 1 year. Workers of type β are in ...
Worker Types in the U.S. Labor Market
Grouping workers by patterns in employment history can help explain persistent joblessness and the quick recovery in productivity after a recession.
Working Paper
Network Search: Climbing the Job Ladder Faster
We introduce an irregular network structure into a model of frictional, on-the-job search in which workers find jobs through their network connections or directly from firms. We show that jobs found through network search have wages that stochastically dominate those found through direct contact. Because we consider irregular networks, heterogeneity in the worker's position within the network leads to heterogeneity in wage and employment dynamics: better connected workers climb the job ladder faster and do not fall off it as far. These workers also pass along higher quality referrals, which ...
Journal Article
\\"Where's the Wage Pressure?\\"
As the unemployment rate declines, many people assume that the average wage in the U.S. will increase. However, the average doesn't move that fast over a single business cycle. And any movement over the long term is more in favor of high-wage earners than low-wage earners.
Journal Article
“Unemployment claims hit 8½-year low”: interpret with caution
An unemployment statistic based on unemployment insurance is less useful because it does not measure unemployment itself.