The Integration of Search in Macroeconomics: Two Alternative Paths

Samuel Danthine and Michel De Vroey

No 2016012, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: Our paper analyzes and compares two attempts at integrating unemployment in macroeconomics. The first, due to Diamond, consists in a search model exhibiting multiple equilibria and wherein cycles may be produced. The second is due to Andolfatto and Merz who, more or less simultaneously, constructed models enabling the integration of the matching function into RBC modeling. In the first sections, we present the methodology upon which our paper is based – Leijonhufvud’s decision-tree insight – and briefly describe these three economists’ motivations and the context in which they were working. We continue with recounting the birth and further development of the search paradigm upon which Diamond’s, Andolfatto’s and Merz’s attempts were based. These preliminaries settled we address the heart of the paper, the critical analysis of their respective contributions. Our interest lies specifically in how they made their way in the development of the field. We explain why Diamond’s model, which ambitioned to rival Lucas’s explanation of business fluctuations, did not live up to its author’s expectations. Andolfatto and Merz’s project was less ambitious yet their model became an established component of the RBC program – but at the price of abandoning several constitutive traits of the search approach.

Keywords: Search and Matching models; Diamond; Lucas; Andolfatto; Merz; Real Business Cycle models; Matching function; Unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B21 B40 D83 E24 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2016-04-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-lab and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: THE INTEGRATION OF SEARCH IN MACROECONOMICS: TWO ALTERNATIVE PATHS (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2016012

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