Job quality in the labor market.

Summary What role does job quality play in a frictional labor market? This is the question that this thesis, consisting of three chapters, has tried to answer, with each contribution focusing on particular frictions and different quality dimensions: on the frictional side, the impact of competition between firms for the best employees in a context of information shortage, and on the other hand the possibility that institutions such as the civil service do not allow for equal access to certain jobs, or that financial markets do not allow for efficient money investments. Regarding the quality dimensions, the contributions focus on wages and a non-monetary dimension for which data from different subcategories of job satisfaction are used. All three chapters take seriously the possibility that workers may be in the "wrong" job while they are rational and maximizing their utility in the labor market. In a market where information about available jobs arrives stochastically, one rarely finds the job that exactly matches one's preferences. If access to credit depends on initial wealth, the best entrepreneurial ideas may not be realized. Chapter (1) presents a job search model with hedonic and productive characteristics. Chapter (2) identifies the impact of a change in wealth on the demand for hedonic characteristics. Chapter (3) traces the evolution of income and its determinants in the self-employed and employed sectors in Ghana.