Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20701 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1403
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
According to Ljungqvist and Sargent (1998), high European unemployment since the 1980s can be explained by a rise in economic turbulence, leading to greater numbers of unemployed workers with obsolete skills. These workers refuse new jobs due to high unemployment benefits. In this paper we reassess the turbulence-unemployment relationship using a matching model with endogenous job destruction. In our model, higher turbulence reduces the incentives of employed workers to leave their jobs. If turbulence has only a tiny effect on the skills of workers experiencing endogenous separation, then the results of Ljungqvist and Sargent (1998, 2004) are reversed, and higher turbulence leads to a reduction in unemployment. Thus, changes in turbulence cannot provide an explanation for European unemployment that reconciles the incentives of both unemployed and employed workers.
Subjects: 
skill loss
European unemployment puzzle
JEL: 
J64
E24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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