Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265724 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15503
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In the US almost 3 per cent of employees are absent from their job for reasons other than vacation, but are still technically employed. We argue that firms may find optimal to use temporary replacement workers to fill these vacant positions. We set up a matching model with directed search and double-sided heterogeneity. When a workers is temporarily forced out of the labour market, firms can freely destroy the job, put it in "mothball", or look for a temporary worker to "keep the seat warm". When the latter option is optimal, a market for temporary replacement workers emerges in equilibrium. In a quantitative application to the US labor market, replacement workers represent 2.7 per cent of total employment.
Subjects: 
replacement workers
short-duration jobs
temporary jobs
worker heterogeneity
firm heterogeneity
employment at will
JEL: 
J22
J40
J15
J60
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.