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Two Sides to Every Story : Measuring the Polarisation of Work

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Abstract

Individual and household based aggregate measures of joblessness can, and do, offer conflicting signals about labour market performance if work is unequally distributed. This paper introduces a simple set of indices that can be used to measure the extent of divergence between individual and household-based jobless measures. The indices, built around a comparison of the actual household jobless rate with that which would occur if work were randomly distributed over the working age population, can be decomposed to try to identify the likely source of any disparity between non-employment rates calculated at the 2 levels of aggregation. Applying these measures to data for Britain, we show that there has been a growing disparity – polarisation - between the individual and household based jobless measures that are largely unrelated to changes in household structure or the principal characteristics associated with individual joblessness.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Two Sides to Every Story : Measuring the Polarisation of Work," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 04/03, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Apr 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:hol:holodi:0403
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    1. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Paul Gregg, 1996. "It Takes Two: Employment Polarisation in the OECD," CEP Discussion Papers dp0304, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. 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.
    4. Dickens & David T. Ellwood, 2004. "Whither Poverty in Great Britain and the United States? The Determinants of Changing Poverty and Whether Work Will Work," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 313-370, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hills,John (ed.), 1996. "New Inequalities," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521556989.
    6. Hills,John (ed.), 1996. "New Inequalities," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521553261.
    7. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Dustmann & Francesca Fabbri, 2005. "Gender and Ethnicity--Married Immigrants in Britain," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 462-484, Autumn.
    2. 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.
    3. Neil Lee & Paul Sissons, 2016. "Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(11), pages 2317-2339, November.
    4. Elena Stancanelli, 2006. "Les couples sur le marché de l'emploi," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-03389366, HAL.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/9719 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Nolen, Patrick, 2006. "Unemployment and Family-Values: A Household Distribution Sensitive Measure of Unemployment and Some Applications," Working Papers 05-03rr, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
    7. MONCEL Nathalie, 2004. "Differentiations in structures of employees' resources: a comparison of eight European countries," IRISS Working Paper Series 2004-02, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9719 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Workless households Distribution of work; Polarisation; joblessness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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