The impossibility of underemployment with more than one product market

We investigate the link between 'underemployment at all wages'and income feedback effects due to firms' activities in an economywith imperfect competition in the product markets. The sizeof income feedback effects negatively depends on the numberof product markets. We strengthen a previous result demonstratedin an overlapping generations model with inelastic price expectations:underemployment at all wages may only exist when the economycontains a single product market, i.e., when firms integrateall feedback effects in their programs.     

Unemployment and racial differences in imprisonment

Conventional wisdom about the criminal justice system suggests that extralegal factors such as race or employment status should not affect sentencing outcomes. In this paper we examine an alternative model of the relationship between imprisonment and unemployment and race. The model suggests that penal practices are shaped by the labor market conditions of a system of production and that prisons, as part of a larger set of institutions providing support for economically-dependent populations, help to regulate the most superfluous group of workers in the industrial economy of the Northern states of the United States—unemployed black workers who comprise a large fraction of the pool of “reserve” workers necessary for price stability and economic expansion. We find support for the structural model that links black imprisonment (and Northern imprisonment in general) to manufacturing output and black unemployment.     

Unemployment and urban development in Gauteng

One aspect of the unemployment crisis which has not received much attention in South Africa is the spatial distribution of unemployment within cities. Concentrated unemployment within cities may be seen primarily as a product of market and non‐market housing allocation processes or of the spatial location of employment opportunities. This article examines the situation in Gauteng province using the 1991 population census and a 1995 survey of employers and using regression analysis to explain the unemployment rate in residential areas. It was found that there is no clear link between the location of employment opportunities and concentrated unemployment, suggesting that housing allocation factors play the decisive role. The findings raise some difficult questions about the appropriateness of urban development strategies which vigorously pursue the collocation of places of residence and work.     

Unemployment persistence

We estimate dynamic panel data models of unemployment incidencefor men using the British Household Panel Survey. Econometricissues concerning unobserved individual heterogeneity, genuinestate dependence, and the initial conditions problems are addressedin detail. We find strong evidence of state dependence consistentwith the scarring theory of unemployment - an individual's previousunemployment experience has implications for his future labourmarket experience. This suggests that policies reducing shortrun employment incidence will have longer-run effects by reducingthe equilibrium or natural rate of unemployment.     

用失业指数反映社会失业状况促进再就业的研究

失业已经成为各国政府关注的问题,然而现在的登记失业率指标存在着很多缺陷。通过对失业人员情况的社会调查与街道登记失业人员的统计分析证明了现行失业率不能全面反映社会失业现象,构建失业指数替代失业率能更全面,更准确地反映出社会失业的状况。     

Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean

This study constructs a new data set on unemployment rates in Latin America and the Caribbean and then explores the determinants of unemployment. We compare different countries, finding that unemployment is influenced by the size of the rural population and that the effects of government regulations are generally weak. We also examine large, persistent increases in unemployment over time, finding that they are caused by contractions in aggregate demand. These demand contractions result from either disinflationary monetary policy or the defense of an exchange-rate peg in the face of capital flight. Our evidence supports hysteresis theories in which short-run changes in unemployment influence the natural rate.     

Exchange Rate Regimes and Unemployment

Using data on 78 countries over 1980 to 2008 and a host of controls, this paper finds that switching from a floating regime to a pegged or an intermediate regime is likely to substantially reduce unemployment. Using a three-way regime classification, the estimated effect of switching to a pegged (to an intermediate) regime is around two percentage points (around one percentage point) after 2 years. These results are robust to variations in both specification and three-way classification. When using a four-way classification, we find evidence that switching from a float to a hard peg is most likely to reduce unemployment.     

Fluctuations in Unemployment and Industry Labor Markets

Throughout the 1990s, and particularly in the mid- to late-1990s, the Japanese employment situation went from bad to worse. We investigate the causes of rising unemployment in Japan, using data on individual workers from the “Special Survey of the Labor Force” between 1988 and 1999. This research focuses on the effect of labor market segmentation by industry on labor flows. Our findings reveal that unemployment in the construction industry and, more recently, in the service industry has contributed greatly to the national unemployment rate. We also find that most successful job transfers occur within the same industry, even though workers may experience some periods of unemployment. Finally, our results show that labor market conditions in each industry affect the probability that a worker will fall into unemployment as well as the probability that an unemployed worker will find new employment. These findings suggest that the Japanese labor market is segmented by industry and this segmentation contributed to the worsening unemployment in Japan. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2001, 15(4), pp. 437–464. Department of Economics, Dokkyo University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Soka-shi, Saitama 340-0042, Japan; Graduate School of Economics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan. © 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J63, J64.     

Unemployment dynamics in the UK

This paper examines the determinants of unemployment in termsof its statistical correlates. At one extreme unemployment hasbeen viewed as highly trended in the post war period, with theimplication that equilibrium unemployment has followed a broadlysimilar path. Alternatively, unemployment can be viewed as ahighly persistent series that departs for long periods froma more stable equilibria. This paper reports on reduced formmodels of unemployment and suggests that many exogenous variablesthat have typically been associated with movements in equilibriumunemployment have little explanatory power. Instead, unemploymentmay be characterised as a near unit root process driven by amixture of mean shifting I(0) variables.     

下岗、失业和再就业三题

国有企业职工的下岗和失业和是既有联系又有区别的两上概念,下岗是对国有企业职工不得不失去原来劳动岗位的描述,而下岗后的国有企业职工却分别是处在包括失业在内的四种状态之中。对国有企业职工下岗后状态的分析和判断决定政府在再就业问题上所应采取的政策对策,而准确的分析和判断则应建立在对我国劳动力市场发育充分认识的基础之上。     

失业持续时间与再就业者收入

失业持续时间对再就业者工资的影响不仅是一个重要的理论问题。还具有重要的政策含义。然而，在理论上，失业者失业持续时间对再就业后工资的影响是不确定的，所以确定失业持续时间对再就业后工资的影响是一个实证问题。本文利用国家统计局2003年的调查数据分析了失业持续时间对中国城镇人口再就业后工资的影响，发现失业持续时间每延长10％，再就业后工资就下降0．46-0．55％。     

失业与市场经济

自改革开放以来,伴随着市场经济体制改革的不断深化,我国出现了严重的失业问题。本文对我国失业形成的原因做了系统性的分析,并据此指出解决我国失业问题的对策。