Collaborative Research: Contract Theory and Labor Market Behavior: An Empirical Analysis

本研究的目的是确定劳动力市场的契约方法是否有助于解释商业周期中工资和工作时间的变动。重要的是，使用合同方法的初步发现已经显示出分析这些运动的巨大希望。该项目将在几个方向上扩展这一初步工作，以进一步评估合同在解释劳动力市场结果方面的实证相关性。首先，开发和测试最符合个人水平工资数据的合同模型类型。其次，研究将集中在如何估计休闲的跨期可替代性时，雇佣关系是由长期合同。第三，将使用来自几个不同国家的个人层面的数据来调查当雇佣关系受合同约束时，如何比较劳动力市场的灵活性。最后，本文将分析市场出清合约模型，以确定该模型是否可以解释经济周期中就业水平的总体行为。这个项目很重要，因为它将对商业周期中受合同关系影响的工资运动的性质提供有用的见解。

The purpose of this research is to determine whether a contractual approach to the labor market can help explain the movements of wages and hours worked over the business cycle. Important, preliminary findings using the contract approach have already shown great promise for analyzing these movements. The project will involve extending this preliminary work in several directions in order to further assess the empirical relevance of contracts in explaining labor market outcomes. Firstly, the type of contract model which is most consistent with individual level wage data will be developed and tested. Secondly, research will focus on how to estimate the intertemporal substitutability of leisure when employment relations are governed by long term contracts. Thirdly, individual level data from several different counties will be used to investigate how labor market flexibility can be compared when employment relations are governed by contracts. Finally, a market clearing contract model will be analyzed to determine whether such a model can explain the aggregate behavior of employment levels over the business cycle. This project is important because it will provide useful insights into the nature of the movement of wages subject to contractual relations over the business cycle.