Systematic and Random Search A Synthesis

This paper synthesizes two models of search in the labor market: systematic and random. We construct and test a theoretical model in which the searcher is endowed with information on some (possibly zero or all) individual firms in the labor market, as well as the overall wage offer distribution. We test the model using a special wave of the 1976 Current Population Survey. The major theoretical results of our model are as follows: searchers with lower stocks of knowledge (about individual firms), higher discount rates, or having lower coverage by unemployment insurance are more likely to engage in random search activities.