PhD Student

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nathan Lazarus

I am a graduate student in economics at the Massachusetts Institutute of Technology. Previously, I worked for Simon Jäger as a research assistant at the Institute for Labor Economics (IZA) and as a research assistant for Mordecai Kurz and Kenneth Judd at Stanford University.

Here’s a link to my CV.

Publications

How Substitutable Are Workers? Evidence from Worker Deaths

Abstract (click to expand) We estimate how exogenous worker exits affect firms’ demand for incumbent workers and new hires. Drawing on administrative data from Germany, we analyze 34,000 unexpected worker deaths, which, on average, raise the remaining workers’ wages and retention probabilities. The average effect masks substantial heterogeneity. Coworkers in the same occupation as the deceased see positive wage effects; coworkers in other occupations experience wage decreases when a high-skilled or specialized worker dies. Our findings imply substantial replacement costs, which are larger in thin markets and when skills are specialized.