Optimal labor market policy with search frictions and risk-averse workers

Autor: Jean-Baptiste Michau
Přispěvatelé: Département d'Économie de l'École Polytechnique (X-DEP-ECO), École polytechnique (X), Of Economics, Department
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Economics and Econometrics
Labour economics
Layoff
Unemployment insurance
Moral hazard
JEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J6 - Mobility
Unemployment
Vacancies
and Immigrant Workers/J.J6.J65 - Unemployment Insurance • Severance Pay • Plant Closings

media_common.quotation_subject
Employment protection
Hiring subsidies
Optimal ratof unemployment
Unemployment insurance

Microeconomics
Order (exchange)
Economics
JEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J3 - Wages
Compensation
and Labor Costs/J.J3.J38 - Public Policy

[SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance
Employment protection
JEL: D - Microeconomics/D.D6 - Welfare Economics/D.D6.D60 - General
media_common
Hiring subsidies
JEL: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics/E.E6 - Macroeconomic Policy
Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance
and General Outlook/E.E6.E62 - Fiscal Policy

JEL: H - Public Economics/H.H2 - Taxation
Subsidies
and Revenue/H.H2.H21 - Efficiency • Optimal Taxation

Social cost
Subsidy
[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance
Bargaining power
Optimal ratof unemployment
Unemployment
Market policy
Popis: This paper characterizes the optimal policy within a dynamic search model of the labor market with risk-averse workers. In a first-best allocation of resources, unemployment benefits should provide perfect insurance against the unemployment risk, layoff taxes are necessary to induce employers to internalize the social cost of dismissing an employee but should not be too high in order to allow a desirable reallocation of workers from low to high productivity jobs, hiring subsidies are needed to partially offset the adverse impact of layoff taxes on job creation, and both unemployment benefits and hiring subsidies should be almost exclusively financed from layoff taxes. I obtain an optimal rate of unemployment which is, in general, different from the output maximizing rate of unemployment. When workers have some bargaining power, which prevents the provision of full insurance, it is optimal to reduce the rate of job creation below the output maximizing level in order to lower wages and increase the level of unemployment benefits. Thus, layoff taxes should typically exceed hiring subsidies which generates enough surplus to finance at least some of the unemployment benefits. The inclusion of moral hazard does not change this conclusion, unless workers have low bargaining power.
Databáze: OpenAIRE