Job Search and Earnings Mobility

David Turchick

No 2014_16, Working Papers, Department of Economics from University of São Paulo (FEA-USP)

Abstract: Measures of social mobility provide an extra dimension for testing job search models. The present note tests the dynamic model in [Acemoglu, D., 1999. Changes in unemployment and wage inequality: an alternative theory and some evidence. American Economic Review 89, 1259-1278] with respect to Fields’ mobility-as-an-equalizer-of-longer-term-incomes index. The 1980s in the U.S. were not only a period of raising inequality, but also one of longer-term earnings becoming even more unequal than short-term earnings. We establish that this pattern of social mobility (i) is consistent with Acemoglu's argument pointing to a qualitative change in job composition during this period, and (ii) would not arise had a qualitative change in labor markets equilibrium not taken place.

Keywords: social mobility; longer-term incomes; job search; skill-biased technical change; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 J24 J31 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ltv
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