Reservation wages and working hours for recently unemployed U.S. women

Abstract

This paper estimates a structural model of job search behavior where jobs are characterized by both wages and working hours. Worker heterogeneity is taken into account by including covariates in the job offer distribution and the utility function. The estimates are bias-corrected using a statistical model of measurement error designed to accommodate recent evidence on the empirical distribution of measurement errors. The results suggest that the difference between full time and part time reservation wages vary from - 16% to 31%, depending on the characteristics of the individual. The hypothesis that full and part time reservation wages are identical is rejected. Show more