Search, Screening and Sorting

Speaker：CAI Xiaoming (Associate Professor, Peking University HSBC Business School, Shenzhen)

Host：Yang Yang, Associate Professor, Lingnan College

Time and Date：14:30, May. 26, 2023

Venue: Lingnan Hall Lam Chik Xuan Conference Room (103)

Language: English + Chinese

Abstract:

We examine how search frictions impact labor market sorting by constructing a model consistent with recent evidence that employers collect a pool of applicants before interviewing a subset. We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for sorting in both applications and matches. Positive sorting is obtained when production complementarities outweigh a force against sorting measured by a (novel) quality-quantity elasticity.  Interestingly, the production complementarities needed for positive sorting depend on the population fraction of high-type workers and can be increasing in the number of interviews.

Profile of the speaker:

Cai Xiaoming is an assistant professor of economics at Peking University HSBC Business School, Shenzhen. He did his PhD at VU Amsterdam under the supervision of Pieter Gautier. His research is mainly about macroeconomics and labor economics.