The determination of how to distinguish between unemployment and nonparticipation is important and controversial. The conventional approach employs a priori reasoning together with self-reported current behavior. This paper employs an evidence-based classification of labor force status using information about the consequences of the behavior of the nonemployed. We find that marginal attachment-defined as desiring work, although not searching-is a distinct labor market state, lying between those who do not desire work and the unemployed. Furthermore, important heterogeneities exist within these nonemployment states. Two subsets of nonparticipants-both engaged in waiting-display behavior similar to the unemployed. Copyright Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Coles, Melvyn G & Smith, Eric, 1998.
"Marketplaces and Matching,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(1), pages 239-54, February.
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