Low-Skilled Unemployment, Biased Technological Shocks and Job Competition

Olivier Pierrard and Henri Sneessens

No 2003014, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: The unempoyment rise in Eu countries has been particularly strong for low-skilled workers. This observation has often been explained in terms of biased technical change and relative wage rigidities. More attention has been paid recently to an alternative mechanism, the crowding-out of low-skiled workers by over-qualified workers. The objective of this paper is both methodological and empirical. We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with two types of jobs and two types of workers and with search unemployment. The model is calibrated and simulated to examine the interactions between the “skill bias” and “crowding-out” mechanisms. When such interactions are accounted for, the model reproduces quite well the observed unemployment changes.

Keywords: skill bias; equilibrium search unemployment; ladder effect; crowding out; overeducation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J21 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2002-06-01, Revised 2002-05-03
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Working Paper: Low-Skilled Unemployment, Biased Technological Shocks and Job Competition (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2003014

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