IMF Working Papers

I examine the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on labor market outcomes for skilled and unskilled workers and propose a new channel to improve our understanding of the underlying propagation mechanisms. I find that uncertainty shocks are recessionary with the unskilled experiencing a steeper fall in employment. To rationalize these findings, I build a New Keynesian DSGE model with skill heterogeneity and wage rigidities, which, coupled with precautionary labor supply, significantly amplify contractionary effects of uncertainty on the real economy.