Susan Vroman

Is There a Glass Ceiling in Sweden

Using 1998 data, we show that the gender log wage gap in Sweden increases throughout the wage distribution and accelerates in the upper tail. We interpret this as a strong glass ceiling effect. We use quantile regression decompositions to examine whether this pattern can be ascribed primarily to gender differences in labor market characteristics or in the rewards to those characteristics. Even after extensive controls for gender differences in age, education (both level and field), sector, industry, and occupation, we find that the glass ceiling effect we see in the raw data persists to a considerable extent.

Career Interruptions and Subsequent Earnings: A Reexamination Using Swedish Data

This paper reexamines the link between career interruptions and subsequent wages. Using a rich new Swedish dataset, we are able to disaggregate time out of work into several components. Regressing log wages on aggregate total time out leads to the standard result, i.e., a negative coefficient on time out. However, we find that different types of time out have different effects on wages and that these effects vary by gender. This casts doubt on the usual human capital depreciation interpretation that has been placed on the negative coefficient of total time out in the wage equation. We propose a simple signaling model as an alternative interpretation.

THE EFFECTS OF LABOUR MARKET POLICIES IN AN ECONOMY WITH AN INFORMAL SECTOR

In many economies, there is substantial economic activity in the informal sector, beyond the reach of government policy. Labor market policies, which by definition apply only to the formal sector, can have important spillover effects on the informal sector. The relative sizes of the informal and formal sectors adjust, the skill composition of the workforce in the two sectors changes, etc. In this paper, we build an equilibrium search and matching model to analyze the effects of labor market policies in an economy with an informal sector. Our model extends Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) by allowing for ex ante worker heterogeneity with respect to formal-sector productivity. We analyze the effects of labor market policy on informal- and formal-sector output, on the division of the workforce into unemployment, informal-sector employment and formal-sector employment, and on wages. Finally, our model allows us to examine the distributional implications of labor market policy; specifically, we analyze how labor market policy affects the distributions of wages and productivities across formal-sector matches.

Opportunistic Matching in the Housing Market

We construct a model of the housing market in which agents differ in their flow values while searching. Agents enter the market relaxed (with high flow values) but move to a desperate state (low flow values) at a Poisson rate if they have not already transacted. We characterize the equilibrium steady-state matching pattern and the joint distribution of price and time to sale (for sellers). The expected price conditional on time to sale falls with time spent on the market, whereas the conditional variance of price first rises and then falls with time on the market.

Search by Committee

We consider the problem of sequential search when the decision to stop is made by a committee and show that a unique symmetric stationary equilibrium exists given a log concave distribution of rewards. We compare search by committee to the corresponding single-agent problem and show that committee members are less picky and more conservative than the single agent. We show how (i) increasing committee size holding the plurality fraction constant and (ii) increasing the plurality rule affect the equilibrium acceptance threshold and expected search duration. Finally, we show that unanimity is optimal if committee members are sufficiently patient.

Dual Labor Markets, Efficiency Wages, and Search

This article presents an equilibrium model of a dual labor market. Firms are assumed to be identical ex ante, and dualism arises endogenously. The dual labor market outcome is supported by efficiency wage and search considerations. Firms choose wage/effort requirement packages optimally given optimal search and effort choice by workers, and vice versa. We prove existence and investigate the occurrence and nature of dual labor market equilibria.

Unemployment Compensation Finance and Efficiency Wages

This article examines the effects of unemployment compensation finance in a labor market in which firms pay efficiency wages. Two self‐financing unemployment compensation systems are compared: one in which benefits are financed by a proportional payroll tax and another in which experience rating is introduced by taxing firms in proportion to their separations. We find that experience rating leads to less unemployment, less shirking, and higher output.

Nash Equilibrium Efficiency Wage Distributions

This paper extends the shirking model of efficiency wages by introducing worker heterogeneity with respect to the disutility of effort. Heterogeneity leads to a problem of adverse selection in addition to the moral hazard problem that is present in the original model. As a result of adverse selection, an equilibrium in which all firms offer the same efficiency wage cannot exist; rather, a continuously differentiable distribution of wages will be offered in equilibrium. The authors demonstrate this equilibrium by construction and derive it explicitly in the case of a uniform distribution of the effort aversion parameter. Copyright 1998 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

A note on Peters and Severinov, “Competition among sellers who offer auctions instead of prices”

We consider a market in which sellers compete for buyers by advertising reserve prices for second-price auctions. Applying the limit equilibrium concept developed in Peters and Severinov (1997) [1], we show that the competitive matching equilibrium is characterized by a reserve price of zero. This corrects a result in Peters and Severinov (1997) [1].

Non-Existence of Single-Wage Equilibria in Search Models with Adverse Selection

This paper examines the problem of non-existence of a single-wage equilibrium in a simple search model with asymmetric information. A pure-strategy, symmetric Nash equilibrium fails to exist because adverse selection arising from steady-state considerations causes a non-concavity in the payoff function.