Stochastic Volatility in the U.S. Labor Market

In state-of-the-art macroeconomic and labor market models shocks are assumed to be homoscedastic. However, we show that this assumption is much too restrictive. We �find signifi�cant evidence for strong time-varying volatility in all considered labor market time series. First, we estimate the unconditional variance-covariance matrix and �find signi�cant evidence for time variability. Second, we estimate the conditional variance-covariance matrix and discuss the time-varying risk contained in labor market variables. The implications are relevant for modelling purposes, welfare analysis, and the understanding of sources of fl�uctuations.