IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v14y2003i1p104-126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reductions in Aggregate Unemployment as ‘A Free Lunch’

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Dixon

Abstract

This paper looks at the effects of changes in the age composition of the labour force on aggregate male and female unemployment rates. While it has been common to look at aggregate participation rate changes in terms of a weighted average over age groups this seems not to be the case for unemployment. We show in this paper that changes in the age composition of the labour force (driven mainly by changes in the age distribution of the population) has affected the aggregate unemployment rates in a systematic and, with hindsight, predictable manner. Amongst other things, we show that in the past decade or so, policy makers have benefited from a not inconsequential “free lunch†in that changes in the age composition of the labour force have been pulling the aggregate unemployment rates down below what it would otherwise be by around one percent of the labour force. We also show that this free lunch is now coming to an end.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Dixon, 2003. "Reductions in Aggregate Unemployment as ‘A Free Lunch’," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 14(1), pages 104-126, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:14:y:2003:i:1:p:104-126
    DOI: 10.1177/103530460301400109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530460301400109
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530460301400109?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:14:y:2003:i:1:p:104-126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.