HYSTERESIS IN AN EVOLUTIONARY LABOR MARKET WITH ADAPTIVE SEARCH

Leigh Tesfatsion ()

No 18189, Economic Reports from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This study undertakes a systematic experimental investigation of hysteresis (path dependency) in an agent-based computational labor market framework. It is shown that capacity asymmetries between work suppliers and employers can result in two distinct hysteresis effects, network and behavioral, when work suppliers and employers interact strategically and evolve their worksite behaviors over time. These hysteresis effects result in persistent heterogeneity in earnings and employment histories across agents who have no observable structural differences. At a more global level, these hysteresis effects are shown to result in a one-to-many mapping between treatment factors and experimental outcomes. These hysteresis effects may help to explain why excess earnings heterogeneity is commonly observed in real-world labor markets.

Keywords: Labor; and; Human; Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50
Date: 1999
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/18189/files/er50.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Hysteresis in an Evolutionary Labor Market with Adaptive Search (2002)
Working Paper: Hysteresis in an Evolutionary Labor Market with Adaptive Search (2000)
Working Paper: Hysteresis in an Evolutionary Labor Market with Adaptive Search (1999)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iowaer:18189

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.18189

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