Volume 23, Number 1 (Winter) 1988
Kahn, Lawrence M. and Stuart A. Low. 1988. "Systematic and Random Search: A Synthesis." Journal of Human Resources 23(1):1-20.
This paper synthesizes two models of search in the labor market: systematic and random. We construct and test a theoretical model in which the searcher is endowed with information on some (possibly zero or all) individual firms in the labor market, as well as the overall wage offer distribution. We test the model using a special wave of the 1976 Current Population Survey. The major theoretical results of our model are as follows: searchers with lower stocks of knowledge (about individual firms), higher discount rates, or having lower coverage by unemployment insurance are more likely to engage in random search activities.
Kahn is a professor of economics and labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Low is an associate professor of economics at Arizona State University. The authors are grateful for financial assistance from the Economics Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Kahn) and the Arizona State University College of Business Dean's Council of 100 (Low). The authors thank two anonymous referees and the editors for helpful comments and suggestions.
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