Employment Effects of Restructuring in the Public Sector in North America Staff Working Paper 2001-19 Paul Fenton, Irene Ip, Geoff Wright This paper examines whether restructuring in the public sector contributed to the slower cyclical recovery in Canada than in the United States during the 1990s. Changes in public sector employment are used to investigate this question. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): J, J4, J45
Employment Effects Of Nominal-Wage Rigidity: An Examination Using Wage-Settlements Data Staff Working Paper 2000-14 Umar Faruqui The argument advocating a moderate level of inflation based on the downward nominal-wage rigidity (DNWR) hypothesis rests on three factors: its presence, extent, and negative impact in the labour market. This paper focuses on the employment effect of DNWR. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): C, C2, C23, J, J2, J23, J3, J30
The Employment Costs of Downward Nominal-Wage Rigidity Staff Working Paper 2000-1 Jean Farès, Seamus Hogan In this paper, we use firm-level wage and employment data to address whether there is evidence of downward nominal-wage rigidity, and whether that rigidity is associated with a reduction in employment. We describe an estimation bias that can result when estimating reduced-form wage and employment equations and suggest a way of controlling for that bias. […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, J, J2, J23, J3, J31
Dynamic Employment and Hours Effects of Government Spending Shocks Staff Working Paper 1999-1 Mingwei Yuan, Wenli Li In this paper, we analyze the dynamic behaviour of employment and hours worked per worker in a stochastic general equilibrium model with a matching mechanism between vacancies and unemployed workers. The model is estimated for the United States using the Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) estimation technique. An increase in government spending raises hours worked […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Fiscal policy, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, E6, E62, J, J6, J64
Can a Matching Model Explain the Long-Run Increase in Canada's Unemployment Rate? Staff Working Paper 1998-19 Andreas Hornstein, Mingwei Yuan The authors construct a simple general equilibrium model of unemployment and calibrate it to the Canadian economy. Job creation and destruction are endogenous. In this model, they consider several potential factors that could contribute to the long-run increase in the Canadian unempoloyment rate: a more generous unemployment insurance system, higher layoff costs, higher discretionary taxes, […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Fiscal policy, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E6, J, J4
International Borrowing, Specialization and Unemployment in a Small, Open Economy Staff Working Paper 1998-2 Patrick Osakwe, Shouyong Shi Empirical evidence suggests that the unemployment rate and the export/GNP ratio are positively correlated with external debt across developing countries. This paper develops a dynamic model that provides an explanation for the aforementioned relationships. The central idea of our paper is that international borrowing affects unemployment and specialization patterns by unevenly changing the risk-sharing structure—across […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, J, J6
Food Aid Delivery, Food Security and Aggregate Welfare in a Small Open Economy: Theory and Evidence Staff Working Paper 1998-1 Patrick Osakwe A small-open-economy model is developed to examine how the method of food aid disbursement affects labor employment, food security and aggregate welfare, in recipient countries, in an environment in which private sector firms pay efficiency wages to induce effort. Two forms of food aid delivery are considered: first is project food aid, under which food […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics JEL Code(s): J, J4, O, O1, Q, Q1