Paper #930

Title:

Product market deregulation and the U.S. employment miracle

Authors:

Monique Ebell and Christian Haefke

Date:

December 2002 (Revised: January 2006)

Abstract:

We consider the dynamic relationship between product market entry regulation and equilibrium unemployment. The main theoretical contribution is combining a job matching model with monopolistic competition in the goods market and individual wage bargaining. Product market competition affects unemployment by two channels: the output expansion effect and a countervailing effect due to a hiring externality. Competition is then linked to barriers to entry. We calibrate the model to US data and perform a policy experiment to assess whether the decrease in trend unemployment during the 1980’s and 1990’s could be attributed to product market deregulation. Our quantitative analysis suggests that under individual bargaining, a decrease of less than two tenths of a percentage point of unemployment rates can be attributed to product market deregulation, a surprisingly small amount.

Keywords:

Product market competition, barriers to entry, wage bargaining

JEL codes:

E24, J63, L16, O00

Area of Research:

Business Economics and Industrial Organization / Macroeconomics and International Economics

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