| dc.description.abstract |
<p>This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay, ``The Structural
Shift in the Cyclicality of the U.S. Labor Income Share: Empirical Evidence'', I document
a structural shift in the cyclicality of the labor share from countercyclical to procyclical.
I conclude that this structural shift is due to a decline in the usage of labor hoarding
at the firm level and to an increase in the volatility of real wages. I also provide
evidence suggesting this shift is widespread to the entire economy and is not due
to structural changes in the industrial composition for the U.S. economy. In the second
essay, ``The Cyclicality of the Labor Share: Labor Hoarding, Risk Aversion and Real
Wage Rigidities'', I explore whether the decline in the usage of labor hoarding is
able to jointly generate the vanishing procyclicality of labor productivity and the
shift in the cyclicality of the labor share. I conclude that while these models are
able to generate the vanishing procyclicality of labor productivity, they will generate
counterfactually a more countercyclical labor share. This counterfactual result also
occurs when I consider instead a decline in the workers' bargaining power in the wage
bargaining power and an increase in the relative importance of aggregate demand shocks.
In the third essay, ``The Public Sector Wage Premium: An Occupational Approach'',
I characterize the strategy undertaken by the U.S. government to provide insurance
to workers in occupations that are on the left-tail of the private wage distribution.
I conclude that the government is effectively offering a high wage premium to non-routine
manual workers and a wage penalty to non-routine cognitive workers.</p>
|
|
