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We introduce an irregular network structure into a model of frictional, on-the-job search in which workers find jobs through their network connections or directly from firms. We show that jobs found through network search have wages that stochastically dominate those found through direct contact. In irregular networks, heterogeneity in the worker's position within the network leads to heterogeneity in wage and employment dynamics: better-connected workers climb the job ladder faster. Despite this rich heterogeneity from the network structure, the mean-field approach allows the problem of our workers to be formulated tractably and recursively. We then calibrate a quantitative version of our mechanism, showing it is consistent with several empirical findings regarding networks and labor markets: jobs found through networks have higher wages and last longer. Finally, we present new evidence consistent with our model that job-to-job switches at higher rungs of the ladder are more likely to use networks.

This paper explores the consequences of tax enforcement policies for monetary policy. Agents may evade taxes by working in the informal sector, but they are detected with positive probability. Workers are rewarded with government benefits that are proportional to formal (taxed) work. When enforcement is imperfect and collecting taxes is costly, the optimal inflation rate is positive and inflation becomes a second-best tax. Deviations from the Friedman rule are optimal and depend on the tax enforcement policies. Using U.S. data, we compute the quantitative effect of different tax structures on inflation and interest rate. We show that different tax enforcement and government spending (benefits) policies induce different optimal outcomes for inflation and interest rates.

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