The cyclicality of job search effort in matching models

The canonical matching model is the workhorse model of the labour market but lacks a proper amplification mechanism for productivity shocks. One way to amplify the effects of shocks is to allow workers to endogenously adjust their job search effort: as search effort is procyclical in the canonical model, volatilities increase. Yet, the empirical literature points against procyclical search effort, raising doubts of how acyclical (or countercyclical) search effort can coincide with volatile labour market variables in matching models. We show that they can coincide in a model with procyclical value of leisure and alternating-offer wage bargaining.