American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Life-Cycle Profile of Time Spent on Job Search
American Economic Review
vol. 103,
no. 3, May 2013
(pp. 111–16)
Abstract
Using time use survey data we document a hump-shaped profile of job search time in the United States across the life-cycle. The middle-aged unemployed spend roughly three times as much time in job search as the youngest group of unemployed. The hump-shaped profile of job search time is relatively stable across demographic groups. However, the profile of job search time appears to be declining in non-US countries. We discuss how standard life-cycle models with incomplete markets have difficulty in accounting for the hump-shaped profile found in the US data.Citation
Aguiar, Mark, Erik Hurst, and Loukas Karabarbounis. 2013. "The Life-Cycle Profile of Time Spent on Job Search." American Economic Review, 103 (3): 111–16. DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.3.111Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D15 Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search