Labor Supply Elasticities: Can Micro be Misleading for Macro?

Riccardo Fiorito () and Giulio Zanella

No 4, Working Papers from Department of the Treasury, Ministry of the Economy and of Finance

Abstract: In this paper we compare, in a fully consistent manner, micro and macro labor supply elasticities. The individual elasticity is obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The aggregate, time-series, elasticity is estimated from the aggregation of individual units in the PSID for each year. We rely on exact aggregation of first-order conditions in a lifecycle labor supply model with home production. We find an individual elasticity of approximately 0.1, a low value that is in accordance with standard micro estimates. At the same time, we find an aggregate elasticity near 1. This result derives from a pure aggregation effect, with most of the difference due to the extensive margin. An implication of our result is that micro evidence is not always a reliable guide for calibrating aggregate macroeconomic parameters.

Keywords: elasticity of labor supply; aggregation; calibration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E13 E24 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Labor Supply Elasticities: Can Micro Be Misleading for Macro? (2008)
Working Paper: Labor Supply Elasticities: Can Micro Be Misleading for Macro? (2008)
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