This essay provides a survey of various models that use search theory to analyze labor markets. By search theory, we mean a framework in which trading frictions are modeled explicitly. Search models generate unemployment as an equilibrium outcome, and also allow us to discuss various ways in...

We document a robust negative relationship between the log of mean annual hours in an occupation and the standard deviation of log annual hours within that occupation. We develop a unified model of occupational choice and labor supply that features heterogeneity across occupations in the return...

The response of aggregate labor supply to various changes in the economic environment is central to many economic issues, especially the optimal design of tax policies. This paper surveys recent work that uses structural models and micro data to evaluate the size of this response. Whereas the...