We look at the impact of a binding minimum wage on labor market outcomes and welfare distributions in a partial equilibrium model of matching and bargaining in the presence of on-the-job search. We use two different specifications of the Nash bargaining problem. In one, firms engage in a...

Most econometric models of intrahousehold behavior assume that household decisionmaking is efficient, i.e., utility realizations lie on the Pareto frontier. In this paper we investigate this claim by adding a number of participation constraints to the household allocation problem. Short-run...

While widely accepted models of labor market search imply a constant reservation wage policy, the empirical evidence strongly suggests that reservation wages decline over the duration of a search spell. This paper reports the results of the first real-time search laboratory experiment. The...

Health insurance in the United States is typically acquired through an employer-sponsored program. Often an employee offerred employer-provided health insurance has the option to extend coverage to their spouse and dependents. We investigate the implications of the “publicness” of health...

We generalize the standard search, matching, and bargaining framework to allow individuals to acquire productivity-enhancing schooling prior to labor market entry. As is wellknown, search frictions and weakness in bargaining position contribute to under-investment from an efficiency perspective....

In this paper we utilize a model of household investments in the cognitive development of children to explore the impact of various transfer policies on the distribution of child cognitive outcomes in target populations. We develop a cost criterion that can be used to compare the cost...

The growth in labor market participation among women with young children has raised concerns about the potential negative impact of the mother's absence from home on child outcomes. Recent data show that mother's time spent with children has declined in the last decade, while the indicators of...

There is a long history of the theoretical and empirical investigation of the labor supply decisions of married women. Perhaps the starting point for modern econometric analysis of this question is Heckman (1974), in which a neoclassical model of wives’ labor supply was estimated using...

Labor market decisions are not taken in isolation when individuals are engaged in stable relationships. Our analysis is designed to determine the joint equilibrium distribution of schooling levels, labor market outcomes, and marriage market statuses. We assume individuals begin adult life by...

We look at the impact of a binding minimum wage on labor market equilibrium outcomes and welfare distributions in a model of bilateral matching and bargaining in the presence of on-the-job search. The model is estimated using the method of simulated moments using data taken from the Survey of...