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Unemployment and Spell Duration during the Great Recession in the EU

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  • Carlos Gradín
  • Olga Cantó
  • Coral del Río

Abstract

The current economic recession has had unequal consequences on employment depending on the country considered. It is generally accepted that the negative impact of unemployment on individual welfare can be very different depending on its duration. However, conventional statistics on unemployment do not adequately capture to what extent the recession is not only increasing the incidence of unemployment but also its severity in terms of duration in time of ongoing unemployment spells. In this paper, we follow Shorrocks’s (2009a,b) proposal of a duration-sensitive measure of unemployment in order to analyze the different dynamic characteristics of unemployment in a selected group of European Union countries during the current Great Recession. Our results add some evidence on the relevance of incorporating the duration dimension in measuring unemployment and provide a tool for dynamic analysis based on cross-sectional data.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Gradín & Olga Cantó & Coral del Río, 2012. "Unemployment and Spell Duration during the Great Recession in the EU," Working Papers 1205, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    • Handle: RePEc:vig:wpaper:1205
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Ana Karina Alfaro Moreno & José Javier Núñez Velázquez, 2019. "Utilization of Mixed Distributions in the Calculation of Polarization: The Case of Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 911-946, April.
    3. Carlos Gradín, 2021. "Inequality by Population Groups and Income Sources: Accounting for Inequality Changes in Spain During the Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 481-508, June.
    4. Camp, Kevin & Waldorf, Brigitte, 2014. "The impact of spatial flexibility on unemployment duration in young college-educated workers," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170678, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Hila Axelrad & Erika L. Sabbath & Summer Sherburne Hawkins, 2018. "The 2008–2009 Great Recession and employment outcomes among older workers," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 35-45, March.
    6. James K.C. Chen, 2020. "Perspective on the Influence of Leadership on Job Satisfaction and Lower Employee Turnover in the Mineral Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-16, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    measurement of unemployment; spell duration; European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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