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...

This chapter assesses how models with search frictions have shaped our understanding of aggregate labor market outcomes in two contexts: business cycle fluctuations and long-run (trend) changes. We first consolidate data on aggregate labor market outcomes for a large set of OECD countries. We...