• AEA
  • About the AEA
  • Committees
  • Honors & Awards
  • For Graduate Students
  • For Undergrad Students
  • News & Notes
  • Officers
  • General Information
  • Minutes
  • UA Questionnaire
  • Continuing Education
  • Directory of Members
  • Call for Papers
  • Media
• Journals
  • AEJ: Applied Economics
  • AEJ: Economic Policy
  • AEJ: Macroeconomics
  • AEJ: Microeconomics
  • American Economic Review
  • Journal of Economic Literature
  • Journal of Economic Perspectives
  • eTOCs
  • Virtual Field Journals
  • Institutional Subscriptions
  • AEA Journals on JSTOR
  • Ads in Journals
  • Back Issues Order Forms
  • Copyright & Permissions
• Annual Meeting
  • Submissions
  • Registration/Housing
  • Preliminary Program
  • ASSA 2013 App
  • Annual Meeting Papers
  • Annual Meeting Webcasts
  • Disclosure Code Information
  • Exhibitors
  • Exhibitors & Advertisers Forms
  • Special Event Form
  • Continuing Education
  • Econ-Harmony
  • Archive of Past Programs
• EconLit
  • EconLit Access
  • EconLit Deskop Link
  • EconLit for Members
  • JEL Codes Guide
  • JEL Classifications
  • Journal List
  • Contacts/Corrections
  • Upcoming Exhibits
  • Document Types
  • Search Hints
• Jobs
  • JOE Listings
  • Submit a JOE Listing
  • Job Market Signaling
  • Job Market Scramble
  • Available Retired Faculty
• Resources
  • Resources For Economists
  • RFE Abridged Contents
  • RFE Search
  • RFE Conferences
  • Econ Search Engine
• Members
  • Member Login
  • Become a Member
  • Directory of Members
  • EconLit for Members
  • AEA Journals on JSTOR
  • Econ-Harmony
  • Annual Meeting Webcasts
  • Browse JEL Indexes
  • Virtual Field Journals
  • Institutional Subscriptions

View Settings

This setting lets you change the way you view articles. You can choose to have articles open in a dialog window, a new tab, or directly in the same window.

Open in Dialog
Open in New Tab
Open in same window

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics: Vol. 1 No. 1 (January 2009)

AEJ: Macro Volume. 1, Issue 1 | Previous Article

Expand

Quick Tools:

Print Article Summary Email Link to this Article

To Email:

From Email:

Message:

Email Link to Article Change Captcha Export Citation

BibTeX EndNote Refer/BibIX RIS Tab-Delimited Export Sign up for Email Alerts Follow us on Twitter Subscription Information
(Institutional Administrator Access)

Explore:

AEJ: Macro - All Issues

AEJ: Macro Forthcoming Articles

Convergence in Macroeconomics: The Labor Wedge

Article Citation

Shimer, Robert. 2009. "Convergence in Macroeconomics: The Labor Wedge." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 1(1): 280-97.

DOI: 10.1257/mac.1.1.280

Abstract

I review research on the behavior of the labor wedge, the ratio between the marginal rate of substitution of consumption for leisure and the marginal product of labor. According to competitive, market-clearing macroeconomic models, the ratio is easy to measure and should be equal to the sum of consumption and labor taxes. The observation that the wedge is higher in continental Europe than in the United States has proved useful for understanding the extent to which taxes can explain differences in labor market outcomes. The observation that the ratio rises during recessions suggests some failure of competitive, market-clearing macroeconomic models at business cycle frequencies. The latter observation has guided recent research, including work on sticky wage models and job search models. (JEL E24, E32, J64)

Article Full-Text Access

Full-text Article

Additional Materials

Download Data Set (50.58 KB)

Authors

Shimer, Robert (U Chicago)

JEL Classifications

E24: Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital
E32: Business Fluctuations; Cycles
J64: Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

Comments

View Comments on This Article (0) | Login to post a comment