Creative destruction with on-the-job search

Michau, Jean-Baptiste (2007) Creative destruction with on-the-job search. CEPDP (835). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK. ISBN 9780853282105

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Abstract

This paper is about the labour market consequences of creative destruction with on-the-job search. We consider a matching model in an economy with embodied technological progress and show that its dynamics are profoundly affected by allowing on-the-job search. We obtain that the elasticity of unemployment with respect to growth shrinks from 1.63 to 0.13. Moreover, the underlying transmission channels change as the flow of obsolete jobs practically disappears and is replaced by a flow of job-to-job transitions. These effects persist even if employed job seekers are significantly less efficient in the search process than the unemployed. Thus, we show that, rather than contributing to unemployment, creative destruction induces a direct reallocation of workers from low to high productivity jobs. These results could be strengthened by assuming that search efforts are unobservable by firms which induces more on-the-job search. However, the action of worker is no longer surplus maximizing and, hence, the worker’s welfare is increasing in the cost of search which acts as a commitment device. Finally, we show that the model could be extended by allowing for variable search intensity.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk
Additional Information:	© 2007 Jean-Baptiste Michau
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J64 - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment > E24 - Macroeconomics: Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (includes wage indexation) J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J63 - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J41 - Contracts: Specific Human Capital, Matching Models, Efficiency Wage Models, and Internal Labor Markets O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O39 - Other
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2008 13:46
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:02
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/19658

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