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Two sides to every story: measuring polarization and inequality in the distribution of work

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  • Paul Gregg
  • Jonathan Wadsworth

Abstract

Summary. Individual‐ and household‐based aggregate measures of joblessness can offer conflicting signals about labour market performance if work is unequally distributed. The paper introduces an index that can be used to measure both the extent and the sources of divergence between non‐employment rates calculated at the two levels of aggregation. Built around a comparison of the actual household joblessness rate with that which would occur if work were equally distributed, the index conforms to basic axioms of consistency and can be decomposed and applied to any binary variable of interest measured at two different levels of aggregation. Applying these measures to data for Britain, we show that rising inequality in the distribution of work is mostly within group, largely unrelated to changes in size of household or the principal characteristics that are associated with individual joblessness.

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  • Paul Gregg & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2008. "Two sides to every story: measuring polarization and inequality in the distribution of work," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 171(4), pages 857-875, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:171:y:2008:i:4:p:857-875
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-985X.2008.00542.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Haddad, Lawrence & Kanbur, Ravi, 1990. "How Serious Is the Neglect of Intra-Household Inequality?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(402), pages 866-881, September.
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    8. Wolfson, Michael C, 1994. "When Inequalities Diverge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 353-358, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gabriella Berloffa & Francesca Modena, 2014. "Measuring (In)Security in the Event of Unemployment: Are We Forgetting Someone?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 77-97, May.
    2. Brewer, Mike & Wren-Lewis, Liam, 2012. "Why did Britain’s households get richer? Decomposing UK household income growth between 1968 and 2008–09," ISER Working Paper Series 2012-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Behind and beyond the (head count) employment rate," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(3), pages 657-681, June.
    4. Pascale Bourquin & Jonathan Cribb & Tom Waters & Xiaowei Xu, 2019. "Why has in-work poverty risen in Britain?," IFS Working Papers W19/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Eliana Viviano & Andrea Brandolini, 2018. "Measuring employment and unemployment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 445-445, August.
    6. Giovanni Razzu & Carl Singleton & Mark Mitchell, 2020. "On why the gender employment gap in Britain has stalled since the early 1990s," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 476-501, November.
    7. Jeroen Horemans, 2016. "Polarisation of Non-standard Employment in Europe: Exploring a Missing Piece of the Inequality Puzzle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 171-189, January.
    8. repec:hdl:wpaper:1402 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Kelly Alice Barbosa Macêdo & Danyella Juliana Martins de Brito & Stélio Coêlho Lombardi Filho, 2025. "Impacts of Jobless Families on Young People’s Work and Study Outcomes in Brazil," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 425-447, March.
    10. Abu Bakkar Siddique, 2023. "Job market polarization and American poverty," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-24, December.
    11. Annemie Nys & Leen Meeusen & Vincent Corluy, 2016. "Who cares? A Counterfactual Analysis of Household Work Intensity in Households with Disabled Family Members," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 675-691, September.
    12. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Wim Van Lancker & Diego Collado & Bea Cantillon, 2016. "Has the potential for compensating poverty by women’s employment growth been depleted?," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/02, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    13. Paul Gregg & John Jerrim & Lindsey Macmillan & Nikki Shure, 2017. "Children in jobless households across Europe: Evidence on the association with medium- and long-term outcomes," DoQSS Working Papers 17-05, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    14. Biegert, Thomas & Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, 2020. "Accumulation or absorption? Changing disparities of household non-employment in Europe during the Great Recession," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103474, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Salverda, Wiemer & Checchi, Daniele, 2014. "Labour-Market Institutions and the Dispersion of Wage Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Wim Lancker & Diego Collado & Bea Cantillon, 2020. "Trends in Women’s Employment and Poverty Rates in OECD Countries: A Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 37-61, March.
    17. Vincent Corluy & Frank Vandenbroucke, 2012. "Individual Employment, Household Employment and Risk of Poverty in the EU. A Decomposition Analysis," Working Papers 1206, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.

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