Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment

41 Pages Posted: 16 Mar 2015

See all articles by Benedikt Herz

Benedikt Herz

European Union - European Commission; European Union - European Commission

Thijs van Rens

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; CEPR; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

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Abstract

We investigate unemployment due to mismatch in the US over the past three decades. We propose an accounting framework that allows us to estimate the overall amount of mismatch unemployment as well as the contribution of the frictions that caused the mismatch. Mismatch is quantitatively important for unemployment and the cyclical behavior of mismatch unemployment is very similar to that of the overall unemployment rate. Geographic mismatch is driven primarily by wage frictions. Mismatch across industries is driven by wage frictions as well as barriers to job mobility. We find virtually no role for worker mobility frictions.

Keywords: mismatch, structural unemployment, worker mobility, job mobility

JEL Classification: E24, J61, J62

Suggested Citation

Herz, Benedikt and Herz, Benedikt and van Rens, Thijs, Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8884, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2578236 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2578236

Benedikt Herz (Contact Author)

European Union - European Commission ( email )

Rue de la Loi 200
Brussels, B-1049
Belgium

European Union - European Commission ( email )

Rue de la Loi 200
Brussels, B-1049
Belgium

Thijs Van Rens

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.thijsvanrens.com

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.iza.org/profile?key=3806

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