Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Job search models often assume that higher levels of search intensity increase reemployment probabilities and wages. However, there is little empirical evidence confirming this conjecture because no nationally representative datasets for the United States provide clear indicators of both search intensity and reemployment wages. To address this limitation, we merge the American Time Use Survey, which provides data on search intensity, with unemployment insurance administrative records on earnings to examine how search intensity affects reemployment probabilities and wages. We then examine how different methods of search affect reemployment wages.