Labor Rationing / Emily Breza, Supreet Kaur, Yogita Shamdasani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Breza, Emily.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kaur, Supreet.

Shamdasani, Yogita.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28643.

NBER working paper series no. w28643

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

This paper measures excess labor supply in equilibrium. We examine hiring shocks--which employ 24% of the labor force in external month-long jobs--in Indian local labor markets. In peak months, wages increase instantaneously and local aggregate employment declines. In lean months, consistent with severe labor rationing, wages and aggregate employment are unchanged, with positive employment spillovers on remaining workers--indicating that over a quarter of labor supply is rationed. At least 24% of lean self-employment among casual workers occurs because they cannot find jobs. Consequently, traditional survey approaches mismeasure labor market slack. Rationing has broad implications for labor market analysis.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2021.