We analyze slave redemption programs—the buying of slaves to give them their freedom--in a simple matching model, i.e., under the assumption that it takes time to find slaves to buy or sell. Unlike in a supply and demand framework, where sufficiently large and effective redemption programs...

This paper investigates the effects of using dismissal taxes to finance unemployment benefits. We compare dismissal and employment taxes in a model with search frictions. Employment taxes give rise to externalities because firms do not take into account the effects their dismissal decisions have...

In this paper we incorporate a labor market with matching frictions and wage rigidities into the New Keynesian business cycle model. In particular, we analyze the effect of a monetary policy shock and investigate how labor market frictions affect the transmission process of monetary policy. The...

Abstract We use a matching framework to explore the hypothesis that firing costs are a decreasing function of labor market tightness. Conventional wisdom suggests that differences in employment protection legislation (EPL) cause differences in labor market performance. Our hypothesis suggests a...

We use a matching framework to explore the hypothesis that firing costs are a decreasing function of labor market tightness. Conventional wisdom suggests that differences in employment protection legislation (EPL) cause differences in labor market performance. Our hypothesis suggests a reverse...

In this paper, we present an agent-based, evolutionary, model of output- and labor-market dynamics. Firms produce a homogeneous, perishable good under constant returns to scale using labor only. Labor productivities are firm-specific and change stochastically due to technical progress. The key...

This paper develops some general conditions under which complementarities between individual agents imply that assortative matching is efficient. Our analysis has four main findings. First, when agents are organized into equal-sized groups, just as in Becker (1973), the presence of within-group...

We study the effects of firing taxes on labor market outcomes. These taxes, more common in European markets, include all administrative and procedural costs incurred by the firm. As such, they are independent of the dismissed worker's skill level. We establish that, for young workers,...

Building upon a continuous-time model of search with Nash bargaining in a stationary environment, we analyze the effect of changes in minimum wages on labor market outcomes and welfare. While minimum wage increases invariably lead to employment losses in our model, they may be welfare-improving...