This paper develops a sufficient statistics approach for estimating the role of search frictions in wage dispersion and life-cycle wage growth. We show how the wage dynamics of displaced workers are directly informative of both for a large class of search models. Specifically, the correlation between pre- and post-displacement wages is informative of frictional wage dispersion. Furthermore, the fraction of displaced workers who suffer a wage loss is informative of frictional wage growth and job-to-job mobility, independent of the job-offer distribution and other labor-market parameters. Applying our methodology to US data, we find that search frictions account for less than 20% of wage dispersion. In addition, we estimate that between 40 to 80% of workers experience no frictional wage growth during an employment spell. Our approach allows us to estimate how frictions change over time. We find that frictional wage dispersion has declined substantially since 1980 and that frictional wage growth, while low, is more important toward the end of expansionary periods. We finish by estimating two versions of a random search model to show how at least two different mechanisms—involuntary job transitions or compensating differentials—can reconcile our results with the job-to-job mobility seen in the data. Regardless of the mechanism, the estimated models show that frictional wage growth accounts for about 15% of life-cycle wage growth.

中文翻译：

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摩擦性工资分散和增长的充分统计数据

本文开发了一种充分的统计方法来估计搜索摩擦在工资分散和生命周期工资增长中的作用。我们展示了失业工人的工资动态如何直接为一大类搜索模型提供信息。具体来说，转移前和转移后工资之间的相关性可以提供摩擦性工资分散的信息。此外，遭受工资损失的失业工人比例可以反映工资摩擦增长和工作之间的流动性，与工作机会分配和其他劳动力市场参数无关。将我们的方法应用于美国数据，我们发现搜索摩擦在工资差异中所占比例不到 20%。此外，我们估计 40% 至 80% 的工人在就业期间没有遇到工资增长摩擦。我们的方法使我们能够估计摩擦力如何随时间变化。我们发现，自 1980 年以来，摩擦性工资离散度已大幅下降，摩擦性工资增长虽然较低，但在扩张期结束时更为重要。最后，我们估计了随机搜索模型的两个版本，以展示至少两种不同的机制（非自愿工作转换或补偿差异）如何使我们的结果与数据中看到的工作之间的流动性相一致。无论机制如何，估计模型显示摩擦性工资增长约占生命周期工资增长的 15%。最后，我们估计了随机搜索模型的两个版本，以展示至少两种不同的机制（非自愿工作转换或补偿差异）如何使我们的结果与数据中看到的工作之间的流动性相一致。无论机制如何，估计模型显示摩擦性工资增长约占生命周期工资增长的 15%。最后，我们估计了随机搜索模型的两个版本，以展示至少两种不同的机制（非自愿工作转换或补偿差异）如何使我们的结果与数据中看到的工作之间的流动性相一致。无论机制如何，估计模型显示摩擦性工资增长约占生命周期工资增长的 15%。