Title
Bonus Question: Does Flexible Incentive Pay Dampen Unemployment Dynamics?
Author(s)
Meghana Gaur Meghana Gaur (Princeton University)
John Grigsby John Grigsby (Princeton University)
Jonathon Hazell Jonathon Hazell (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Abdoulaye Ndiaye Abdoulaye Ndiaye (New York University Stern)
Abstract
We introduce dynamic incentive contracts into a model of unemployment dynamics and present three results. First, wage cyclicality from incentives does not dampen unemployment dynamics: the response of unemployment to shocks is first-order equivalent in an economy with flexible incentive pay and without bargaining, vis-à-vis an economy with rigid wages. Second, wage cyclicality from bargaining dampens unemployment dynamics through the standard mechanism. Third, our calibrated model suggests 46% of wage cyclicality in the data arises from incentives. A standard model without incentives calibrated to weakly procyclical wages, matches unemployment dynamics in our incentive pay model calibrated to strongly procyclical wages.
Creation Date
2023-09
Section URL ID
Paper Number
2023-05
URL
https://jadhazell.github.io/website/Bonus_Question.pdf
File Function
Jel
J64
Keyword(s)
Dynamic Incentive Pay, Unemployment Dynamics
Suppress
false
Series
13