Economic Growth and Labor Market Friction: A Quantitative Study on Japanese Structural Transformation

33 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2013 Last revised: 29 Jun 2016

See all articles by Seung-Gyu Sim

Seung-Gyu Sim

Aoyama Gakuin University

Seungjoon Oh

Peking University - HSBC Business School

Date Written: February 18, 2016

Abstract

This paper develops a tractable multi-sector endogenous growth model with labor market friction and human capital accumulation to analyze the underlying link between economic growth and labor market institutions. The model, calibrated based on the Japanese structural transformation episodes, demonstrates that lifetime employment system has contributed to unprecedentedly rapid economic growth, by enhancing human capital accumulation and facilitating physical capital formation. The counterfactual experiment finds that had the job durations of a typical worker been 1 year (roughly one tenth of the actual average job duration) for 1960-1990 in the Japanese labor market, the non-agricultural GDP per capita in 1990 would have accounted for 71 percent of the actual values.

Keywords: Structural Transformation, Economic Growth, Labor Market Friction

JEL Classification: O11, O14, O24, O41, J62

Suggested Citation

Sim, Seung-Gyu and Oh, Seungjoon, Economic Growth and Labor Market Friction: A Quantitative Study on Japanese Structural Transformation (February 18, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2357812 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2357812

Seung-Gyu Sim (Contact Author)

Aoyama Gakuin University ( email )

4-4-25 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo, 150-8366
Japan

Seungjoon Oh

Peking University - HSBC Business School ( email )

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