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Macroeconomic analyses and microeconomic analyses of labor supply

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  • Ashenfelter, Orley
Abstract
This paper reports on the current status of the microeconomic research on labor supply behavior. The purpose is to direct attention to microeconomic research that may be helpful in the continuing evaluation of aggregate models designed to explain the dynamic behavior of wages, employment and unemployment. The approach is hopelessly empirical, and the emphasis throughout is on models specified completely enough to allow confrontation with the kind of data actually available.The first part of the paper is addressed to microeconomists, however. It is a brief attempt to provide a sketch of the stylized facts that aggregate models of the labor market are meant to address. These include (1) the serial "persistence" in the change in unemployment (or employment),(2) the absence of persistence in the change in the real wage rate, and (3) the continued existence of a negative correlation between nominal price changes and unemployment rates.The microeconomic (longitudinal) data turn out to be difficult to square up with the simplest life-cycle models of labor supply. Contrary to the predictions of the models, the data indicate that (1) average hours and average real wages move in the same direction only some of the time, and that (2) the within life-cycle, person-specific correlation between hours and wages is negative. The microeconomic (experimental) data indicate other puzzles. More elaborate models incorporating measurement error, non-separable preferences, and unanticipated wage movements may explain these findings, but they are also likely to contain parameters that are noteasily identified with the kind of data actually available. Perhaps an alternative approach may be more fruitful in reconciling the long run determination of hours worked by worker preferences with the short run interaction of observed employment and earnings.
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(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Ashenfelter, Orley, 1984. "Macroeconomic analyses and microeconomic analyses of labor supply," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 117-156, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crcspp:v:21:y:1984:i::p:117-156
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    1. Thomas J. Sargent, 1973. "Rational Expectations, the Real Rate of Interest, and the Natural Rate of Unemployment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 4(2), pages 429-480.
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    Cited by:

    1. Prescott, Edward C., 1986. "Theory ahead of business-cycle measurement," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 11-44, January.
    2. Casey B. Mulligan, 1999. "Substitution over Time: Another Look at Life-Cycle Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1998, volume 13, pages 75-152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christiano, Lawrence J & Eichenbaum, Martin, 1992. "Current Real-Business-Cycle Theories and Aggregate Labor-Market Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 430-450, June.
    4. Gary Solon & Robert Barsky & Jonathan A. Parker, 1994. "Measuring the Cyclicality of Real Wages: How Important is Composition Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 1-25.
    5. Hercowitz, Zvi & Sampson, Michael, 1987. "Output Growth and Employment Fluctuations," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275430, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Daniel Wilhelm, 2018. "Testing for the presence of measurement error," CeMMAP working papers CWP45/18, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    7. Bound, John & Krueger, Alan B, 1991. "The Extent of Measurement Error in Longitudinal Earnings Data: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January.
    8. Hunt Allcott & Nathan Wozny, 2014. "Gasoline Prices, Fuel Economy, and the Energy Paradox," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 779-795, December.
    9. Uwe Hassler & Michael Neugart, 2003. "Inflation-unemployment tradeoff and regional labor market data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 321-334, April.
    10. Merz, Monika, 1995. "Search in the labor market and the real business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 269-300, November.
    11. Roland Benabou, 2002. "Tax and Education Policy in a Heterogeneous-Agent Economy: What Levels of Redistribution Maximize Growth and Efficiency?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 481-517, March.
    12. Robert B. Barsky & Gary Solon, 1989. "Real Wages Over The Business Cycle," NBER Working Papers 2888, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Edward C. Prescott, 1986. "Response to a skeptic," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 10(Fall), pages 28-33.

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    JEL classification:

    • N17 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Africa; Oceania

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