Book Description

The first chapter shows that the propagation properties of the standard search and matching model of equilibrium unemployment are significantly altered when vacancy costs require some external financing on frictional credit markets. Agency problems on credit markets lead to higher costs of vacancies. When the former are counter-cyclical, this greatly increases the elasticity of vacancies to productivity through two distinct channels: (i) a cost channel - lowered unit costs during an upturn as credit constraints are relaxed increase the incentive to post vacancies; (ii) a wage channel - the improved bargaining position of firms afforded by the lowered cost of vacancies limits of the upward pressure of market tightness on wages. As a result, the model can match the observed volatility of unemployment, vacancies and labor market tightness. Moreover, the progressive easing of financing constraints to innovations generates persistence in the response of market tightness and vacancies, a robust feature of the data and shortcoming of the standard model. Extending the model to allow for endogenous job separation improves its ability to match gross labor flows statistics while preserving its propagation properties. The second chapter documents the existence of time-varying congestion in the (re)allocation of physical capital akin to what is observed on labor markets. It then builds a model with search frictions for the allocation of physical capital in order to investigate its implications for the business cycle. While the model is in principle capable of generating substantial internal propagation to small exogenous shocks, the quantitative effects are modest once it is calibrated to fit firm-level capital flows. The model is then extended to credit market frictions that lead to countercyclical default as in the data. Although countercyclical default directly affects capital reallocation, even in this extended model, search frictions in physical capital markets play only a small role for business cycle fluctuations. The final chapter models flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in a two country, two sector DSGE framework. The allocation of capital to production capacity abroad is subject to a search-and-matching friction with endogenous capital reallocation, capturing the additional cost and time involved in adjusting production capacity abroad. The model is calibrated on observed gross inflows and outflows of FDI and leads to dynamics of net foreign direct investment consistent with the empirical evidence documented in this chapter: inward and outward net flows of FDI are positively correlated whereas a standard International Real Business Cycle model has the prediction of a negative correlation. Moreover, the model solves the aggregate investment quantity puzzle as it generates cross-country correlations in-line with the data.