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...

We survey search-theoretic models of the labor market and discuss their usefulness for analyzing labor market dynamics, job turnover, and wages. We first examine single-agent models, showing how they can incorporate many interesting features and generate rich predictions. We then consider...

The large differences in hours of work across industrialized countries reflect large differences in both employment to population ratios and hours per worker. We imbed the canonical model of labor supply into a standard matching model to produce a model in which both the intensive and extensive...