Wages and the Value of Nonemployment

We thank Karl Aspelund, Nikhil Basavappa, Carolin Baum, Niklas Flamang, René Livas, Peter McCrory, Damian Osterwalder, Johanna Posch, and Nina Roussille for excellent research assistance. We thank four anonymous reviewers, and Pierre Cahuc, Steve Davis, Cynthia Doniger, Robert Hall, Jonathon Hazell, Patrick Kline, Alan Manning, Giuseppe Moscarini, Andreas Mueller and Iván Werning, and audiences at Boston University, MIT, Penn State, SOLE 2019, Stanford, Stockholm IIES, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Mannheim, Universidad Carlos III Madrid, University of British Columbia, University College London, All California Labor Economics Conference, Eastern Economic Association, IAB Perspectives on (Un-) Employment, IZA Evaluation of Labor Market Policies Conference, IZA/CREST/OECD Conference on Labor Market Policy, LMU Munich, University of Regensburg, NBER Economic Fluctuations and Growth, NBER Summer Institute Macro Perspectives, West Coast Matching Workshop, and Stanford SITE. Jäger and Schoefer acknowledge financial support from the Sloan Foundation and the Boston Retirement Research Center. The latter grant requires the following disclaimer: “The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement Research Consortium. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the opinions or policy of SSA, any agency of the Federal Government, or the National Bureau of Economic Research. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the contents of this report. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.”

• November 5, 2018