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Labour Market Inefficiency and Frictional Unemployment in Australia and its States: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

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  • PHILIP M. BODMAN

Abstract

This paper provides estimates of labour market inefficiency and the frictional unemployment rate for Australia and its States over the period January 1978 to December 1997. These estimates are derived from parametric statistical models of employment growth in which technical inefficiencies are accounted for. The mean estimate of the (technically efficient) frictional unemployment rate for Australia over the sample period is S3 per cent of the labour force. Technical inefficiency in the labour market matching process is significant and contributes around 13 per cent to the mean steady‐state (naturaľ) unemployment rate. Investigation of the factors explaining the levels of inefficiency suggests that inefficiencies vary countercyclical, are related to which political party is in power and the time of year and that only Western Australia and Queensland have exhibited a significant decline in inefficiency over the period.

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  • Philip M. Bodman, 1999. "Labour Market Inefficiency and Frictional Unemployment in Australia and its States: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(2), pages 138-148, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:75:y:1999:i:2:p:138-148
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1999.tb02442.x
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    1. Ángel L. Martín‐Román & Jaime Cuéllar‐Martín & Alfonso Moral, 2023. "Natural and cyclical unemployment: A stochastic frontier decomposition and economic policy implications," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 5-39, January.
    2. Marika Karanassou & Hector Sala, 2010. "Labour Market Dynamics in Australia: What Drives Unemployment?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 185-209, June.
    3. Nicolaas Groenewold, 2001. "Long-Run Shifts of the Beveridge Curve and the Frictional Unemployment Rate in Australia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 01-09, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    4. Nicolaas Groenewold, 2003. "Long-Run Shifts of the Beveridge Curve and the Frictional Unemployment Rate in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 65-82, March.
    5. Jeff Borland & Ian McDonald, 2000. "Labour Market Models of Unemployment in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n15, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Baños, José F. & Rodríguez-Álvarez, Ana & Suárez, Patricia, 2016. "Matching frontiers: A random parameter model approach," Efficiency Series Papers 2016/07, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    7. Aomar Ibourk & Bénédicte Maillard & Sergio Perelman & Henri Sneessens, 2004. "Aggregate Matching Efficiency: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach, France 1990–1994," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 1-25, March.
    8. Cuéllar Martín, Jaime & Martín-Román, Ángel L. & Moral, Alfonso, 2017. "A composed error model decomposition and spatial analysis of local unemployment," MPRA Paper 79783, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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