Structural Labor Supply Models and Wage Exogeneity

44 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2014

See all articles by Max Loeffler

Max Loeffler

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Andreas Peichl

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research; University of Mannheim - School of Economics (VWL); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

Sebastian Siegloch

University of Mannheim - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research - Corporate Taxation and Public Finance Research; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); University of Cologne - Cologne Centre for Public Economics (CPE)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 24, 2014

Abstract

There is still considerable dispute about the magnitude of labor supply elasticities. While differences in micro and macro estimates are recently attributed to frictions and adjustment costs, we show that relatively low labor supply elasticities derived from microeconometric models can also be explained by modeling assumptions with respect to wages. Specifically, we estimate 3,456 structural labor supply models each representing a plausible combination of frequently made choices. While most model assumptions do not systematically affect labor supply elasticities, our analysis shows that the results are very sensitive to the treatment of wages. In particular, the often-made but highly restrictive independence assumption between preferences and wages is key. To overcome this restriction, we propose a flexible estimation strategy that nests commonly used models. We show that loosening the exogeneity assumption leads to labor supply elasticities that are much higher.

Keywords: labor supply, elasticity, random utility models, wages

JEL Classification: C25, C52, H31, J22

Suggested Citation

Loeffler, Max and Peichl, Andreas and Siegloch, Sebastian, Structural Labor Supply Models and Wage Exogeneity (June 24, 2014). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 14-040, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2464472 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2464472

Max Loeffler (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Andreas Peichl

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

University of Mannheim - School of Economics (VWL) ( email )

Mannheim 68131
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

Sebastian Siegloch

University of Mannheim - Department of Economics ( email )

D-68131 Mannheim
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research - Corporate Taxation and Public Finance Research ( email )

United States

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

University of Cologne - Cologne Centre for Public Economics (CPE) ( email )

Germany

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