Factors Influencing Unemployment Duration With A Special Emphasis On Migration: An Investigation Using Sipp Data And Event History Methods

The length of time that individuals are unemployed has considerable political and policy significance. Important questions about the factors influencing the duration of unemployment remain to be answered. The purpose of this paper is to carry out an empirical investigation of the factors that cause unemployment to be of a longer or shorter duration. Such factors are identified within a micro†economic framework drawn from human capital and job search theories. Event history methods and panel data are used to model unemployment duration. The data come from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) which contains weekly information on labor force status over about a two and a half year period, as well as data on a number of individual and locational attributes. Evidence from the empirical investigation suggests that migration, temporary layoff and income during unemployment combine with individual characteristics to influence the duration of unemployment spells.