Date of Award
2006
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Economics
Supervisor
Dr. Audra Bowlus
Abstract
My dissertation contains four chapters examining the role of search in determin ing wage differentials and monetary equilibria. The first chapter proposes a general equilibrium search model to examine the interrelationship between career interrup tions and wage differentials. The decision to transit from the employment state to the nonparticipation state is endogenized. Compared to the exogenous transition model, this endogenous transition model generates higher wage offers to female work ers, smaller male-female wage differentials and a smaller fraction of females in the nonparticipation state. The second chapter studies how to consistently estimate a general equilibrium search model using available panel data and develops an alter native estimation methodology which can be used to study wage differentials. The third chapter studies the wage differentials between mothers and non-mothers in a general equilibrium search model and it finds that differences in labor market be havior between mothers and non-mothers are an important factor in explaining the family gap. Estimation results show that for college graduates a large portion of the family gap can be explained by differences in on-the-job search behavior. The final chapter presents a monetary search model in which agents are allowed to hold any non-negative amount of money and capital. A numerical method is developed to characterize stationary equilibria. The model predicts that both the price and wealth iii distributions are non-degenerate in the equilibrium and the potential redistributive effect of monetary policy can lead to a positive optimal rate of inflation.
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Yahong, "ESSAYS ON THE ROLE OF SEARCH IN DETERMINING WAGE DIFFERENTIALS AND MONETARY EQUILIBRIA" (2006). Digitized Theses. 5066.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/5066
