IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/909.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Determinants of Unemployment Duration

Author

Listed:
  • Samer Kherfi

    (American University of Sharjah)

Abstract

This study uses a set of dates on unemployment, employment, mobility, marriage, and birth, from the 2006 and 2012 rounds of the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey, to construct a cross-section of first-unemployment spells, and to measure selected individual-specific attributes (age, residency, cohort, and marital status) at the time of the spell. After conducting a 2006-2012 comparison of Kaplan-Meier estimates of the probability of staying unemployed, along several characteristics, the 2012 data is employed to estimate a discrete hazard regression model to quantify the effect of these characteristics on the duration of unemployment, after controlling for gender, educational level, as well as father’s education and occupation. It is found that unemployment duration was longer among women and persons with secondary and higher education. Individuals who entered the labor market as adolescents experienced longer spells, in comparison to older youth. Father’s education and unemployment duration were negatively associated for men, but were unrelated among women. Men whose fathers had no or unskilled jobs exited unemployment faster, with no recorded effect of father’s occupation on the likelihood of leaving unemployment among women. Regional variations in duration were more pronounced for women than for men. Marriage was associated with longer spells of unemployment, maybe due to stronger support from (rather than to) immediate family (spouse and children). The duration of unemployment increased over time for entrants of the same age. The baseline hazard was flat for women, and hump-shaped for men, suggesting a time dependent duration for the latter group.

Suggested Citation

  • Samer Kherfi, 2015. "Determinants of Unemployment Duration," Working Papers 909, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:909
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/909.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2mRhRd3
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aysit Tansel & H. Mehmet Taşçı, 2010. "Hazard Analysis of Unemployment Duration by Gender in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(4), pages 501-530, December.
    2. Pedro Portugal & José Ferreira Machado, 2006. "U.S. Unemployment Duration: Has Long Become Longer or Short Become Shorter?," Working Papers w200613, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    3. Mario Cleves & William W. Gould & Roberto G. Gutierrez & Yulia Marchenko, 2010. "An Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LLC, edition 3, number saus3, July.
    4. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1995. "Easy Estimation Methods for Discrete-Time Duration Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 129-138, February.
    5. Aysit Tansel & H. Mehmet Taşçı, 2010. "Hazard Analysis of Unemployment Duration by Gender in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(4), pages 501-530, December.
    6. Ragui Assaad & Christine Binzel & May Gadallah, 2010. "Transitions To Employment And Marriage Among Young Men In Egypt," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(01), pages 39-88.
    7. Ragui Assaad & Christine Binzel & May Gadallah, 2010. "Transitions to Employment and Marriage Among Young Men in Egypt," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 39-88, January.
    8. Assaad, Ragui & Krafft, Caroline (ed.), 2015. "The Egyptian Labor Market in an Era of Revolution," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198737254.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft, 2023. "Labour market dynamics and youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidence from Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(4), pages 519-553, December.
    2. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft & Shaimaa Yassin, 2018. "Comparing retrospective and panel data collection methods to assess labor market dynamics," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-34, December.
    3. Ceesay, Masanneh Landing & Kakengi, Veronica, 2020. "What prolongs youth unemployment in The Gambia?," MPRA Paper 113516, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Nov 2021.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Irene Selwaness & Caroline Krafft, 2021. "The Dynamics of Family Formation and Women’s Work: What Facilitates and Hinders Female Employment in the Middle East and North Africa?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(3), pages 533-587, June.
    2. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft, 2023. "Labour market dynamics and youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidence from Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(4), pages 519-553, December.
    3. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft & Dominique J. Rolando, 2017. "The Role of Housing Markets in the Timing of Marriage in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia," Working Papers 1081, Economic Research Forum, revised 04 Oct 2017.
    4. Rania Salem, 2016. "The gendered effects of labour market experiences on marriage timing in Egypt," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(11), pages 283-314.
    5. Caroline Krafft & Ragui Assaad, 2020. "Employment’s Role in Enabling and Constraining Marriage in the Middle East and North Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2297-2325, December.
    6. Björn Nilsson, 2019. "The School-to-Work Transition in Developing Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(5), pages 745-764, May.
    7. Irene Selwaness & Rania Roushdy, 2017. "The Arab Spring and the Employability of Youth: Early Evidence From Egypt," Working Papers 1097, Economic Research Forum, revised 05 2017.
    8. Anda David & Rana Hendy, 2016. "Does International Migration Help Them Marry earlier? A Hazard Model for the Case of Egypt," Working Papers 1051, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 Jan 2016.
    9. Bertoli, Simone & Marchetta, Francesca, 2015. "Bringing It All Back Home – Return Migration and Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 27-40.
    10. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft, 2014. "The Economics of Marriage in North Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-067, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Murali Kuchibhotla & Peter F. Orazem & Sanjana Ravi, 2020. "The scarring effects of youth joblessness in Sri Lanka," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 269-287, February.
    12. Binzel, Christine & Assaad, Ragui, 2011. "Egyptian men working abroad: Labour supply responses by the women left behind," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(S1), pages 98-114.
    13. SAM, Vichet, 2017. "Unemployment duration and educational mismatches: A theoretical and empirical investigation among graduates in Cambodia," MPRA Paper 87673, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Jun 2018.
    14. Obbey Ahmed Elamin, 2018. "Impact of Informal Job-search on Wages for University Graduates in Egypt and Jordan," Working Papers 1272, Economic Research Forum, revised 19 Dec 2018.
    15. Krafft Caroline & Assaad Ragui & Rahman Khandker Wahedur, 2021. "Introducing the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2018," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-40, January.
    16. Sandu Christiana Brigitte & Darabă Gabriel & Jaba Elisabeta, 2018. "Evaluation of the Duration of Unemployment Spells Using Kaplan-Meier Estimator. A study on Botoşani County’s Labor Market," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(1), pages 248-253, July.
    17. Assaad, Ragui & Krafft, Caroline, 2017. "Excluded Generation: The Growing Challenges of Labor Market Insertion for Egyptian Youth," IZA Discussion Papers 10970, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Kuchibhotla, Murali, 2013. "Three essays in development economics," ISU General Staff Papers 201301010800004461, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    19. Daniela-Emanuela Danacica, 2018. "Labor Market Insertion Of Higher Educated People – A Literature Review," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 6, pages 138-145, December.
    20. Masterson, Thomas & Zacharias , Ajit & Antonopoulous, Rania & Memiş, Emel, 2013. "Why Time Deficits Matter: Implications For Understanding And Combating Poverty In Turkey," EY International Congress on Economics I (EYC2013), October 24-25, 2013, Ankara, Turkey 23, Ekonomik Yaklasim Association.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:909. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.