TY  - JOUR
AU  - Akerlof,George A.
AU  - Rose,Andrew K.
AU  - Yellen,Janet L.
TI  - Waiting for Work
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3385
PY  - 1990
Y2  - June 1990
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3385
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3385.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
George A. Akerlof
683 San Luis Road
Berkeley, CA 94707-1725
E-Mail: akerlof@econ.berkeley.edu

Andrew K. Rose
Haas School of Business Administration
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1900
Tel: 510/642-6609
Fax: 510/642-4700
E-Mail: arose@haas.berkeley.edu

Janet Yellen
President and CEO
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
101 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415-974-2121
Fax: 415-974-2113
E-Mail: janet.yellen@frb.gov
AB  - This paper explains upward job mobility and observed patterns of unemployment by skill as an economy recovers from a recession. Skilled unemployment is due to rational waiting by workers looking for long-term jobs when there is a "lock-in" effect. Lock-in occurs if the conditions in the labor market when a worker first accepts a job have a persistent effect on wages. Using longitudinal data, we provide empirical evidence of the cyclical pattern of wages predicted by the theory and also of lock-in.
ER  -