Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Discussion Papers,
Statistics Norway, Research Department

No 786: Labor supply as a discrete choice among latent jobs: Unobserved heterogeneity and identification

John K. Dagsvik () and Zhiyang Jia
Additional contact information
Zhiyang Jia: Statistics Norway

Abstract: This paper discusses aspects of a framework for modeling labor supply where the notion of job choice is fundamental. In this framework, workers are assumed to have preferences over latent job opportunities belonging to worker-specific choice sets from which they choose their preferred job. The observed hours of work and wage is interpreted as the job-specific hours and wage of the chosen job. The main contribution of this paper is an analysis of the identification problem of this framework under various conditions, when conventional cross-section micro-data are applied. The modeling framework is applied to analyze labor supply behavior for married/cohabiting couples using Norwegian micro data. Specifically, we estimate two model versions with in the general framework. Based on the empirical results, we discuss further qualitative properties of the model versions. Finally, we apply the preferred model version to conduct a simulation experiment of a counterfactual policy reforms.

Keywords: labor supply; non-pecuniary job attributes; latent choice sets; random utility models; identification

JEL-codes: J22; C51 September 2014

Full text files

197758 PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to L Maasø ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

RePEc:ssb:dispap:786This page generated on 2024-10-30 04:36:29.