Background
MORTENSEN, Dale T. was born in 1939 in Enterprise, Oregon, United States of America.
MORTENSEN, Dale T. was born in 1939 in Enterprise, Oregon, United States of America.
Bachelor of Arts Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, 1961. Doctor of Philosophy Carnegie-Mellon University, 1967.
Assistant Professor, Association Professor, Northwestern University, 1965-1971, 1971-1975. Visiting Scholar, University Essex, England,
1. Fellow, Institute, Institution Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1977-1978.
Professor of Economics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.
Wage Dispersion: Why Are Similar Workers Paid Differently?
'Job search and labor market analysis.'
'Property rights and efficiency of mating, racing, and related games.'
'A theory of wage and employment dynamics.'
'Wage differentials, employer size, and unemployment.'
'The matching process as a non-cooperative/bargaining game.'
'More on unemployment and vacancy fluctuations.'
'Job creation and job destruction in the theory of unemployment.'
An interest in dynamic phenomena in economics, not readily explained by existing theory, has marked my research from its beginning. Early work includes papers on the development of formal job search models and their implications for unemployment and wage dynamics, and papers on the theory of dynamic factor demand when adjustment costs are present. Although these were intended as contributions to the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics, my research interests shifted to applications of the economics of imperfect information and uncertainty.
A subsequent series of papers was focussed on the study of job separation behaviour, testing for ability in the labour market, labour supply dynamics, and contract equilibrium in the context of models that account for imperfect information and uncertainty. My recent theoretical contributions have dealt with dynamic models of job-worker matching in a game theoretic context, the effects and design of unemployment insurance schemes, and mobility in labour markets characterised by long-term contracts. Currently, I am interested in the development of empirical models of individual-worker labour market experience over time designed for estimation and testing using panel data.
A book on recent contributions of the economics of information and uncertainty to labour economic analysis is in progress.
Fellow Econometric Society
American Academy Arts & Sciences