Jacks of All Trades and Masters of One: Declining Search Frictions and Unequal Growth

Paolo Martellini and Guido Menzio

American Economic Review: Insights, 2021, vol. 3, issue 3, 339-52

Abstract: Declining search frictions generate productivity growth by allowing workers to find jobs for which they are better suited. For "jacks of all trades"—workers whose productivity is similar across different jobs in their labor market—declining search frictions lead to minimal growth. For "masters of one trade"—workers whose productivity varies a great deal across different jobs in their labor market—declining search frictions lead to fast growth. A rudimentary calibration suggests that differential returns to declining search frictions may account for a non-negligible fraction of the wage growth differential between routine and nonroutine workers.

JEL-codes: J24 J31 J63 J64 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20200576 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E129721V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20200576.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20200576.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Jacks of All Trades and Masters of One: Declining Search Frictions and Unequal Growth (2020)
Working Paper: Jacks of All Trades and Masters of One: Declining Search Frictions and Unequal Growth (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aerins:v:3:y:2021:i:3:p:339-52

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20200576

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review: Insights is currently edited by Amy Finkelstein

More articles in American Economic Review: Insights from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().