This dissertation is an economic investigation into the persistency of Canadian unemployment. It examines whether this persistence is caused by sectoral shifts. Empirically, we test for persistence using the Cochrane Variance ratio and the modified rescaled range test statistics. We estimate unemployment persistence using Bayesian ARFIMA class of models. To understand employment sectoral dynamics, the thesis uses data-driven Vector Autoregression models with emphasis on Classical and Bayesian estimation techniques. At the theoretical level, two structural Real Business Cycle models are proposed to explain how aggregate unemployment persistence emerges from sectoral labour mobility. The main difference between these two models is the impetus of the shock. One model uses relative sectoral technology shocks and the other uses relative sectoral taste shocks. We show that sectoral phenomena are important in accounting for aggregate unemployment fluctuations.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Economics.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Economics. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the important role of job connections, references, and word of mouth information in labor markets. The first essay examines the importance of job connections for internal migrants. In this chapter, I develop a theoretical model where labor market networks provide labor market information with less noise than information obtained in the formal market. This model predicts lower initial wages and greater wage growth after migration for migrants without contacts. I then use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) to examine whether migrants who used social connections when finding their first job assimilate faster in the new region. Consistent with the theoretical model, I find that migrants who did not use social connections take longer to assimilate in the new region. The second essay models how screening workers through social networks impacts labor mobility in markets with adverse selection. When there is asymmetric information in labor markets, worker mobility is constrained by adverse selection in the market for experienced workers. However, if workers can acquire references through their social networks then they can move more easily between jobs. In this chapter I develop a simple labor market model in which workers can learn the productivity of other workers through social interaction. I show that networks increase wages and mobility of high-productivity experienced workers; however, networks discourage workers from accepting jobs outside their job-contact network, because of adverse selection. The third essay in this dissertation examines the importance of social networks in labor markets when work is produced jointly. Most employers cite poor attitude and poor fit with firm culture as their greatest problems in recruiting employees, rating these factors more important than skill. This is easily explained when the output of the firm requires that workers engage in work together. In this essay, I explain why it might be rational for firms to hire through social networks even when worker skill is observed perfectly, if these workers are better able to do joint work with the firm s existing employees. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Abstract Like the other developing countries, there was an obvious dual structural economy in the process of economic transition in PRC. There were a lot of rural surplus labor forces in the agricultural sector, and massive underemployments in the industrial sector resulted from imbalanced development policies of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) central-planning economic system. Moreover, the formation of dual structure in PRC was partly in response to differences of natural environment. The most important is that it was caused deeply political and social institutions of Chinese characteristics. With economic reform all the more, large urban-rural gap brought about rural labor mobility from rural to rural, or mobility from underdeveloped interior region to developed coastal region. In the process of mobility, social networks play key role, which provided non-native labors some employment opportunities, information and some places to stay. But the kinds of networks were strengthened by discriminations of local residents¡¦ collective exclusiveness, which resulted in rural-urban dual structure divided into two sub-structures further. People of two sub-structures exclude each other for self-benefits on the one hand, and there would be mutual actions and competitions mutually on the other hand. Labor allocation was the most easily influenced by polity, society and economy of a nation. Therefore, in the meanwhile labor mobility emerged in the geographical space or economic structure, and there would be implications of economic transitions. When we explore the differences of economic development through expression of labor mobility that was helpful to probe into institutional changes of China and to explain differences of economic development and structure between regions. Consequently, this paper makes labor mobility to be a kind of indicators to examine economic development, which would be useful for us to find diversities of innate characters of economic development between provinces of China.

Proefschrift--Groningen. / "Stellingen" and tables inserted in pocket.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-90). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-90). Also available on the Internet.

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