We analyse optimal saving of risk-averse households when labour income stochastically jumps between two states. The generalized Keynes-Ramsey rule includes a precautionary savings term. A phase diagram analysis illustrates consumption and wealth dynamics within and between states. There is an...

Two papers have recently questioned the quantitative consistency of the search and matching models. Shimer (2005) has argued that a text-book matching model is unable to explain the cyclical variation of unemployment and vacancies in the U.S. economy. Costain and Reiter (2007) have found the...

This paper builds a macroeconomic model of equilibrium unemployment in which firms persistently face difficulties in selling their production and this affects their decisions to create jobs. Due to search-frictins on the product market, equilibrium unemployment is a U-shaped function of the...

This paper studies the role of labor market institutions on unemployment and on the cyclical properties of job flows. We construct an intertemporal general equilibrium model with search unemployment and endogenous job turnover, and examine the consequences of introducing an unemployment benefit,...

This paper evaluates counselling programmes in an equilibrium matching model where workers are heterogeneous in skill levels. Job search effort, labour demand and wages are endogenous. When wages are bargained over, raising the effectiveness of or the access to counselling programmes pushes...

This paper develops a joint evaluation of vocational training and unemployment insurance. This allows to analyze how these schemes complment each other from the viewpoints of labor market indicators and of welfare. For this purpose, a general equilibrium matching model is built where workers are...

This paper tries to bridge the gap between the theoretical and empirical analyses of the aggregate impacts of labor market policies (LMPs). Contrary to previous empirical studies, we conduct an econometric analysis based on sound theoretical foundations. The specification is based on an...

This paper proposes a new method to estimate the extent of job competition between workers with different schooling levels. We estimate the structural parameters of a matching function generalised to incorporate crowding out effects. We use flow data out of unemployment containing information on...

This paper is concerned with the general equilibrium effects of active labor market programs and the unemployment insurance system (the replacement ratio and the level of sanctions). It develops an equilibrium job matching model where active programs and the rate of sanctions have an amiguous...

This paper investigates the effect of organizational and technological changes on job stability of different occupations in France. We first develop a basic matching model with endogenous job destsruction. It provides a structure to the empirical analysis, where we extensively exploit a unique...