In this paper we ask a question whether a prolonging of entitlement to unemployment benefits that happened in the mid 80s can explain the unusual increase in unemployment rates of unskilled and old workers. To answer this question we estimate a version of Burdett-Mortensen model of search...

We propose a framework to estimate the extent of compliance to minimum wage laws. Cases of non-compliance arise whenever the law enforcement is imperfect, and the share of the match rent offered by a firm to a worker falls below the minimum wage and above the worker’s reservation wage....