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Reconciling workless measures at the individual and household level: theory and evidence from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia

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  • Gregg, Paul
  • Scutella, Rosanna
  • Wadsworth, Jonathan

Abstract

Individual and household based aggregate measures of worklessness can, and do, offer conflicting signals about labour market performance. We outline a means of quantifying the extent of any disparity, (polarisation), in the signals stemming from individual and household-based measures of worklessness and apply this index to data from 5 countries over 25 years. Built around a comparison of the actual household workless rate with that which would occur if employment were randomly distributed over household occupants, we show that in all the countries we examine, there has been a growing disparity between the individual and household based workless measures. The polarisation count can be decomposed to identify which household groups are exposed to workless concentrations and can also be used to test which individual characteristics account for any excess worklessness among these household groups. We show that the incidence and magnitude of polarisation varies widely across countries, but that in all countries polarisation has increased. For each country most of the discrepancies between the individual and household workless counts stem from within-household factors, rather than from changing household composition.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregg, Paul & Scutella, Rosanna & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2004. "Reconciling workless measures at the individual and household level: theory and evidence from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19954, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:19954
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2005. "Employment Polarisation in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 336-350, December.
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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Immervoll, Herwig & Richardson, Linda, 2011. "Redistribution Policy and Inequality Reduction in OECD Countries: What Has Changed in Two Decades?," IZA Discussion Papers 6030, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. 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.
    6. Christian Dustmann & Francesca Fabbri, 2005. "Gender and Ethnicity--Married Immigrants in Britain," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 462-484, Autumn.
    7. repec:hdl:wpaper:1402 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Claire Ravel, 2007. "La polarisation de l'emploi au sein des ménages de 1975 à 2002," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 402(1), pages 3-23.
    9. Nicolas Hérault & Guyonne Kalb & Rezida Zakirova, 2011. "Dynamics of Household Joblessness: Evidence from Australian Micro-Data 2001–2007," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    10. 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.
    11. Rosanna Scutella & Mark Wooden, 2006. "Effects of Household Joblessness on Subjective Well-Being," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2006n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    12. Ive Marx & Brian Nolan & Javier Olivera, 2014. "The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries," Working Papers 1403, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    13. Mark P. Taylor, 2007. "Tied Migration and Subsequent Employment: Evidence from Couples in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 795-818, December.
    14. Jacqueline O’Reilly & Werner Eichhorst & András Gábos & Kari Hadjivassiliou & David Lain & Janine Leschke & Seamus McGuinness & Lucia Mýtna Kureková & Tiziana Nazio & Renate Ortlieb & Helen Russ, 2015. "Five Characteristics of Youth Unemployment in Europe," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, March.
    15. 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.
    16. Marloes Graaf-zijl & Brian Nolan, 2011. "GINI DP 5: Household Joblessness and its Impacts on Poverty and Deprivation in Europe," GINI Discussion Papers 5, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    17. 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.
    18. Juho Härkönen, 2011. "Children and Dual Worklessness in Europe: A Comparison of Nine Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 27(2), pages 217-241, May.
    19. Salverda, Wiemer & Checchi, Daniele, 2014. "Labour-Market Institutions and the Dispersion of Wage Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Watson, Dorothy & Maître, Bertrand & Whelan, Christopher T., 2012. "Work and Poverty in Ireland: An Analysis of CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2004-2010," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT226, August.
    21. Carlos Gradin & Olga Canto & Coral del Rio, 2012. "Measuring employment deprivation among households in the EU," Working Papers 247, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    22. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Workless households; Inequality; Distribution of work; Polarisation; Worklessness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • C0 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General

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