Inflation has been accused of causing distortionary price and wage fluctuations (sand) as well as lauded for facilitating adjustments to shocks when wages are rigid downwards (grease). This paper investigates whether these two effects can be distinguished from each other in a labor market by the...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

This paper discusses how optimal monetary policy is affected by differences in the combination of shocks an economy experiences and the rigidities it exhibits. Without both nominal rigidities and economic shocks, monetary policy would be irrelevant. Recognizing this, policymakers increasingly...

Hostile takeovers may reduce the prevalence of long-term employment contracts if they facilitate the opportunistic expropriation of extramarginal wage payments. Our tests of two versions of the expropriation hypothesis improve on existing research by using firm- and establishment-level data from...

How do the complex institutions involved in wage setting affect wage changes? The International Wage Flexibility Project provides new microeconomic evidence on how wages change for continuing workers. We analyze individuals' earnings in 31 different data sets from sixteen countries, from which...

The demand for a skilled workforce is increasing even faster than the supply of workers with college degrees - the result: rising wage inequality by education levels, and firms facing a skills gap. While it is often assumed that increasing the number of college graduates is required to fill this...