Dynamics of Labor Demand: Evidence from Plant-Level Observations and Aggregate Implications
Russell Cooper, John C. Haltiwanger, and Jonathan Willis
,
1
(
69
)
Research in Economics
37-50
March
2015
Abstract
This paper studies the dynamics of labor demand at the plant level to quantify labor adjustment costs. At the plant level, in contrast to time-series observations, the correlation of hours and employment growth is negative while hours and employment growth are about equally volatile. We specify and estimate the parameters of a plant-level dynamic optimization problem using simulated method of moments to match these plant-level observations.