Employment Dynamics and the Structure of Labor Adjustment Costs

José Varejão, Pedro Portugal
2007 Journal of Labor Economics  
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more » ... bedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. ABSTRACT Employment Dynamics and the Structure of Labor Adjustment Costs * In this paper we document the patterns of employment adjustment at the micro-level. We find clear evidence of lumpy adjustment consistent with the presence of non-convexities in the adjustment technology -inaction is pervasive, action spells are short-lived, extreme adjustment episodes occur and are responsible for a non-trivial share of employment adjustment. We also find that the probability of employment adjustment increases with the duration of inaction (positive duration dependence). The skill structure of the workforce, the type of employment contract and the proportion of low tenure workers, which we interpret as proxies for the magnitude of adjustment costs, all influence the probability of adjustment. JEL Classification: J23, J63 for helpful comments and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia for financial support. We also acknowledge the Departamento de Estatística do Ministério do Trabalho that kindly allowed us to use the data and Lucena Vieira for excellent computational assistance. The usual disclaimer applies.
doi:10.1086/509825 fatcat:athoovcdszej5pxochke5a64cu