Queen's University,
Department of Economics

ECON 915 - Advanced Topics in Macroeconomics

Winter 2003

Course Outline

0. Introduction

Pissarides, C.A., Equilibrium Unemployment Theory , 2nd ed., The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000

1. Business Cycles

A. Inadequacies of the standard real business cycles that can be traced to the Walrasian labour
market

"The Labor Market in Real Business Cycle Theory", Hansen, G.D. and R. Wright, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 16(2) (Spring 1992) 2-12.

Andolfatto, D. ``Business Cycles and Labor Market Search'', American Economic Review, 86(1) (March 1996) 112-132.

Merz, M. ``Search in the Labor Market and the Real Business Cycle'', Journal of Monetary Economics, 36 (1995) 269-300.

B. Accounting for the business cycle facts

Cole, H.L., and R. Rogerson, ``Can the Mortensen-Pissarides Matching Model Match the Business Cycle Facts?", International Economic Review , 40(4) (November 1999) 933-959.

den Haan, W., G. Ramey, and J. Watson, ``Job Destruction and the Propagation of Shocks'', American Economic Review, 90(3) (June 2000) 482-498.

Shimer, R., ``The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment, Vacancies, and Wages: Evidence and Theory", (October 2002) manuscript, Princeton University.

Trigari, A., ``Equilibrium Unemployment, Job Flows and Inflation Dynamics", (October 2002) manuscript, New York University.

2. Wage Dispersion

A. A basic framework

Burdett, K., and D. Mortensen, ``Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment", International Economic Review, 39(2) (May 1998) 257-273.

Mortensen, D., ``Equilibrium Unemployment with Wage Posting: Burdett-Mortensen meet Pissarides", 281-292 in Panel Data and Structural Labor Market Models, H. Bunzel et al. eds., North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2000.

Montgomery, J., ``Equilibrium Wage Dispersion and Interindustry Wage Differentials", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(1) (February 1991) 163-179.

B. Some extensions and alternatives

Coles, M.G., ``Equilibrium Wage Dispersion, Firm Size, and Growth", Review of Economic Dynamics , 4(1) (January 2001) 159-187.

Postel-Vinay, F., and J.-M. Robin, ``The Distribution of Earnings in an Equilibrium Search Model with State-Dependent Offers and Counteroffers", International Economic Review , 43(4) (November 2002) 989-1016.

Julien, B., J. Kennes, and I. King, ``'Residual' Wage Disparity in Directed Search Equilibrium", (September 2001) manuscript, University of Auckland.

Kambourov, G., and I. Manovskii, ``Occupational Mobility and Wage Inequality", (October 2002) manuscript, University of Western Ontario.

Kumar, A., ``Inflation and the Dispersion of Real Wages", (January 2003) manuscript, Queen's University.

3. Unemployment Insurance

Andolfatto, D., and P. Gomme, ``Unemployment Insurance and Labor Market Activity in Canada'', Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 44(1) (June 1996) 47-82.

Brown, L., and C. Ferrall, ``Unemployment Insurance and the Business Cycle'', manuscript, Univ. of Manitoba and Queen's University, (forthcoming, International Economic Review) June 2002.

Ljungqvist, L., and T.J. Sargent, ``The European Unemployment Dilemma", Journal of Political Economy, 106(3) (June 1998) 514-550.

Marimon, R., and F. Zilibotti, ``Unemployment vs. Mismatch of Talents: Reconsidering Unemployment Benefits", Economic Journal, 109 (1999) 266-291.

Acemoglu, D., and R. Shimer, ``Efficient Unemployment Insurance", Journal of Political Economy , 107(5) (October 1999) 893-928.

Acemoglu, D., and R. Shimer, ``Productivity Gains from Unemployment Insurance", European Economic Review, 44(7) (June 2000) 1195-1244.

Kumar, A., ``Unemployment Insurance, Productivity, and Wage Dispersion", (August 2002) manuscript, Queen's University.