Nir Jaimovich accepts new professorship at UC San Diego
Aug 2022
Research
Nir Jaimovich left the UBS Center in July 2022 to accept a new position as Anonymous Family Chancellor Endowed Chair in Macroeconomics at UC San Diego. Nir Jaimovich was Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Zurich and Affiliated Professor at the UBS Center from 2017 to 2022. On this page you will find an overview of the activities and achievements of his time at the UBS Center.
Nir Jaimovich left the UBS Center in July 2022 to accept a new position as Anonymous Family Chancellor Endowed Chair in Macroeconomics at UC San Diego. Nir Jaimovich was Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Zurich and Affiliated Professor at the UBS Center from 2017 to 2022. On this page you will find an overview of the activities and achievements of his time at the UBS Center.
Nir Jaimovich, Professor of Economics, former Affiliated Professor at the UBS Center
Videos
Selected publications
Disappearing middle class UBS Center Public Paper No.8 2020 download
Trading Down and the Business Cycle with Sergio Rebelo and Arlene Wong), forthcoming, Journal of Monetary Economy download
Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries with Henry E. Siu, forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics download
The end of men UBS Center Policy Brief No. 1.18 2018 download
Really Uncertain Business Cycles with Nick Bloom, Max Floetotto, Itay Saporta-Eksten, and Stephen J. Terry, Econometrica May 2018, vol. 86, issue 3, 1031-1065 download
Disappearing Routine Jobs: Who, How, and Why? with Guido Matias Cortes, and Henry Siu), Journal of Monetary Economy November 2017, vol. 91 download
Nir Jaimovich on Google Scholarbrowse
In the media
The fear of robots displacing workers has returned The Economist 30.8.2020 read
5 trends to look out for in the post-pandemic workplace HRD Connect 24.6.2020 read
Why the unemployed in America could face a lost decade The Economist 2.5.2020 read
Will the covid-19 pandemic accelerate automation? The Economist 22.4.2020 read
The property tax system works brilliantly – if you’re a builder or wealthy homeowner The Guardian of 25.11.2018 read
Männer sind kaum gefragt NZZ am Sonntag vom 3.11.2018 lesen
‘Routine’ Jobs Are Disappearing The Wall Street Journal of 3.1.2017 read
Research
Nir Jaimovich’s research examines macroeconomics questions with special emphasis on business cycles, labor markets, and the macroeconomic implications of micro pricing data.
In recent work, Jaimovich has studied the interaction between the evolving occupation structure of the economy and the dynamics of recovery from recessionary periods. This work highlighted the fact that the disappearance of “middle-class” occupations over the last four decades occured almost exclusively during recessionary periods. Moreover, it is this same phenomenon of occupations disappearance that has given rise to “jobless recoveries.” This work has importance for our understanding of the process by which the middle-class experiences changes in its occupation outlook and highlights that these lacklustre recoveries could become the new norm if this process were to continue.
In other related work he has shown how the age composition of the economy affects the economic volatility of an economy; economies that tend to be younger are more volatile, while economies populated with a middle age structure exhibit more stability. This work shows that (predicted) changes in the age composition of an economy are a tool by which policy makers can predict part of the magnitude of volatility changes.
In other work, Jaimovich has examined the empirical and theoretical plausibility of signals and uncertainty about future economic fundamentals functioning as important drivers of business cycles. He has shown empirically how various uncertainty measures covary negatively with the business cycle and evaluated theoretically their contribution to economic fluctuations. His work concludes that fluctuations in uncertainty (i.e. “second moments”) are an important driver of business cycle highlighting the importance of tracking such measures and calling the attention to policy makers to these measures.
In his micro pricing product level data, Jaimovich has shown how actual firms’ pricing strategies change the insights regarding the extent that monetary policy has an impact on the economy. In this work Jaimovich has shown that traditional measures of price stickiness can be potentially misleading with respect to the degree of price flexibility in the economy highlighting the importance of “price plans.” Based on this work Jaimovich has shown how monetary policy can have much more persistent effects than previously thought when using micro-level data.
Finally, recently in his micro-level pricing work he has emphasized how the quality of goods which consumers choose has important ramifications for the demand for labor and its composition across skilled and unskilled workers. This work shows how the quality composition of consumers baskets explains a significant part of the fall in the demand for labor during the Great Recession and can also explain the evolution of the college skill premium.
Nir Jaimovich’s research examines macroeconomics questions with special emphasis on business cycles, labor markets, and the macroeconomic implications of micro pricing data.
In recent work, Jaimovich has studied the interaction between the evolving occupation structure of the economy and the dynamics of recovery from recessionary periods. This work highlighted the fact that the disappearance of “middle-class” occupations over the last four decades occured almost exclusively during recessionary periods. Moreover, it is this same phenomenon of occupations disappearance that has given rise to “jobless recoveries.” This work has importance for our understanding of the process by which the middle-class experiences changes in its occupation outlook and highlights that these lacklustre recoveries could become the new norm if this process were to continue.
Quotes
Our model indicates that if ICT becomes cheaper, fewer people will be in routine jobs, and they will earn less from these jobs.
There is increasing demand for social skills in cognitive occupations, from doctors to software engineers; a good job involves performing tasks that require greater creativity, analysis and problem-solving skills than others.
The demand for social skills in high-paying occupations has increased female employment in those jobs – not the other way round.
Interview
2017
Contact
Nir Jaimovich received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2004. He works on macroeconomics questions with special emphasis on business cycles, labor markets, and the macroeconomic implications of micro product level data and was head of the NBER price dynamics group (together with Bob Hall). Within these research areas, he combines new data and quantitative theories to tackle long-standing macroeconomic questions. In the area of labor/macro his work shows how demographic composition and occupation structure of the economy shape the dynamics of the business cycle. In addition, his work examines the empirical and theoretical plausibility of signals and uncertainty about future economic fundamentals functioning as important drivers of business cycles. Finally, his micro-pricing product-level data shows how actual firms’ pricing strategies shapes the insights regarding the extent that monetary policy has an impact on the economy. His work has found large resonance inside and outside academia and was featured within policy circles (such as White House official publications) and media outlets such The New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Forbes, Swiss and German media.
Nir Jaimovich received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2004. He works on macroeconomics questions with special emphasis on business cycles, labor markets, and the macroeconomic implications of micro product level data and was head of the NBER price dynamics group (together with Bob Hall). Within these research areas, he combines new data and quantitative theories to tackle long-standing macroeconomic questions. In the area of labor/macro his work shows how demographic composition and occupation structure of the economy shape the dynamics of the business cycle. In addition, his work examines the empirical and theoretical plausibility of signals and uncertainty about future economic fundamentals functioning as important drivers of business cycles. Finally, his micro-pricing product-level data shows how actual firms’ pricing strategies shapes the insights regarding the extent that monetary policy has an impact on the economy. His work has found large resonance inside and outside academia and was featured within policy circles (such as White House official publications) and media outlets such The New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Forbes, Swiss and German media.