Apr 1, 2012 - Mar 31, 2013

Welfare Analysis of Contingent Workers in Japanese Labor Market: A Structural Approach

In this project we will try to understand the effects on working conditions of Japanese worker of the increase in contingent employment that the country has experienced in the last 10 to 15 years. We will use both a theoretical and empirical approach to the problem. We will utilize a job search model within a general equilibrium framework in the theory part of the paper, and we will include several market features that are important to understand the Japanese labor market. The model will be estimated using a structural estimation methodology, which has become standard in the micro-econometric literature of these types of models We will then perform several counter factual experiment to conduct policy evaluations. This will allow us to understand what can be done within the current context to reverse some of the issues that have arisen due to the large fraction of contingent workers in the labor market, especially within the young population.