This paper examines the causes of observed increase in the duration of unemployment relative to the unemployment rate in the Post-War United States. First we analyze if changes in the demographic composition of U.S. labor force can explain the change in the structure of unemployment duration. In particular, we examine how much of the observed change can be explained by the aging of the baby boom cohort, increase in women's labor force participation, and change in the educational attainment of the labor force. We then consider institutional changes, such as the change in the generosity and coverage of unemployment insurance and the change in union affiliation. We show that changes in the composition of the labor force and institutional changes can only partially account for the observed increase in the duration of unemployment. We argue that increase in within-group wage inequality can potentially be important in explaining the changing structure of unemployment duration. We examine this hypothesis by setting up a job search model and calibrating it to the U.S. data. The results indicate that 75% of the increase in the duration of unemployment can be explained by the increase in the within-group wage inequality
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2004 Meeting Papers with number
11.
Length: Date of creation: 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:red:sed004:11
Contact details of provider: Postal: Society for Economic Dynamics Anne Stubing CV Starr Center for Applied Economics 269 Mercer Street, Room 303 New York University New York, NY 10003 Fax: 1-860-486-4463 Email: Web page: http://www.EconomicDynamics.org/society.htm More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christian Zimmermann).
Find related papers by JEL classification: E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search