Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25264 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
SFB 649 Discussion Paper No. 2008,022
Publisher: 
Humboldt University of Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649 - Economic Risk, Berlin
Abstract: 
I explore the implications of the lumpy labor adjustment as a propagation mechanism for aggregate dynamics. The model I use nests the basic RBC model with a staggered-job-turnover in the spirit of Taylor (1980) and Calvo (1983). It extends this approach by introducing a Weibull-distributed labor adjustment process to capture increasing hazard rates and heterogeneous labor rigidity in the economy corroborated by the micro data. My principal findings are: uncertainty in the labor adjustment process induces firms to make precautionary labor adjustment (the front-loading effect), amplifying the volatility of labor demand, and that the heterogeneity in labor rigidity leads to aggregate persistence in labor and output. The key message conveyed by this model is that heterogeneity in labor rigidity matters for the aggregate dynamics, and hence includes the information of the distribution of agents enriching the propagation mechanism of the RBC model.
Subjects: 
Business cycles
Heterogeneous labor rigidity
Weibull distribution
Increasing hazard function
JEL: 
E32
E24
E22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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