This paper analyzes the determinants of lay-offs, job-to-job movements and totalseparations with a unique data set that combines information on individual firmsand their workers. We are in particular interested in whether the lay-offpolicy of firms can explain the relatively high level of...

This paper finds that unemployment insurance sanctions substantially raise individual transition rates from unemployment to employment. Sanctions are punitive benefits reductions that are supposed to make recipients comply with certain minimum requirements concerning search behavior. We provide...

This paper examines the use of equilibrium search models in the empiricalanalysis of labor markets. We survey the literature on structural estimationof these models with micro data on wages and durations, and we discuss theadvantages of the equilibrium approach, for policy analysis and...

It is often argued that a mandatory minimum wage is binding only if the wage density displays a spike at it. In this paper we analyze a model with wage setting, search frictions, and heterogeneous production technologies, in which imposition of a minimum wage affects wages even though, after...