Three Essays in Empirical Labour Economics

Abstract

<p>This thesis is a collection of three essays that use what have arguably become the three most common empirical strategies found in the labour economics literature. The first essay uses descriptive analyses to document and explain a long-term secular increase in on-the-job search (OJS) in the U.S. and Canada between the mid-l 970s and mid-l 990s. Based on observed concomitant trends in job-to-job transition rates and returns to wage changing, the OJS increase appears most consistent with a long-term reduction in the costs of searching while employed. Moving beyond descriptive analyses, the second essay takes an instrumental variables approach to estimating the effectiveness of internet job search in reducing unemployment durations. Although raw means indicate shorter unemployment spells among internet searchers, the evidence from a more complete model that controls for observable characteristics suggests no effect of using the internet on unemployment durations. Finally, the third essay employs a differences-tn-differences strategy to infer the employment and hours of work effects of Sunday shopping deregulation. The results suggest that deregulation led to a long-run increase in labour demand that was disproportionately satisfied through an increase in the employment level. In conclusion the thesis offers some insights into the relative advantages and disadvantages of these three identification strategies.</p>