This thesis consists of three theoretical chapters, all related to the response of unemployment to shocks and the role of active and passive labour market policies. Throughout the thesis, unemployment is assumed to evolve as a result of the uncoordinated nature of the labour market along the lines outlined in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides equilibrium search and matching model. Chapter 2 examines the effects of employment policies on vacancy creation and allocation decisions of firms and unemployment across workers with different skills. We develop a partial equilibrium model with heterogeneous high- and low-tech jobs and with skilled and unskilled workers, which we motivate by the stark evidence on the incidence of cross-skill employment (which crowds out unskilled workers, e.g. evidence for the US, the UK and the EU put these at 58%, 32%, and 35%, respectively). We show that certain employment protection policies could, in fact, lead to a reduction in job creation and might alter the allocation of vacancies across low- and high-tech job type. We find that: (i) skilled workers benefit while unskilled workers experience high jobless rate; (ii) policy effects differ when they are skill-specific; (ii) stricter policies can have more severe consequences; and (iv) vacancy creation subsidy can play a key role in reducing unemployment across worker type as well as alleviating the cross-skill crowding out of jobs. Against conventional wisdom, we demonstrate that severance compensation can have a ‘real’ effect on job creation decision, provided there is some degree of strictness in its enforcement. Motivated by the extensive use of fiscal stimulus policies and labour market reforms during the last economic crisis, in Chapter 3 we study the implications of labour market regulations in driving the sensitivity of an economy to fiscal spending shocks, in a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with job search frictions. We demonstrate that less rigidity in the labour market reduces the impact of fiscal demand shock on job creation and employment, both at extensive and intensive margins, whereas higher rigidity amplifies it. We also establish that the extent to which government spending promotes economic activity, job creation and employment depends on the degree of substitutability between private and public consumption. Higher substitutability dampens economic activity and reduces the sizes of output and employment multipliers. Labour market-oriented fiscal spending is found to be the most potent policy instruments for promoting employment – especially in the presence of high labour market rigidities. Finally, in Chapter 4, we study how openness to international trade and capital mobility and their interactions with labour market policies affect the behaviour of an economy, in particular with respect to its unemployment level. We show that the degree of openness to international capital flow is crucial for understanding the response of unemployment to different shocks. In isolation, by raising the incentive to invest, a reduction in capital mobility barriers leads to lower unemployment, both in the long-run and the dynamic short-run. With limited restrictions to capital movement, unemployment responds faster and with greater magnitude to a domestic productivity shock, and this is further enhanced the more the economy is open to international trade. A striking finding of this study is that while a higher degree of capital mobility enhances the adjustment of unemployment in response to a domestic productivity shock, it dampens its adjustment to a foreign demand shock. By contrast, higher openness to international trade enhances the adjustment effects of both shocks on unemployment. Finally, we find that heterogeneity in the welfare state systems in the EU can generate substantial differentials in the adjustment of unemployment to various shocks.

Wong, Pui Hang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Characterizing Illegal Immigrants --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Job Displacement --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- Minimum Wage Unemployment --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Basic Model --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Effect of Illegal Immigration --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Solow Model --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Decentralized Ramsey Model --- p.21 / Chapter 3 --- Frictional Unemployment --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Basic Model --- p.27 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- The Economy with Illegal Migrants --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2 --- Productivity Effect --- p.36 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Comparative Statics --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Unemployment --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3 --- Exploitation Effect --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- A Simulation Example --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4 --- Immigration Controls --- p.48 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Workplace Sanction --- p.49 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Deportation & Border Patrol --- p.53 / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.56

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development (Psychology), 2013 / The prevalence, characteristics and causes of unemployment in the general population have been well researched in South Africa, however, the sub-population of unemployed graduates has been studied to a far lesser extent. In this mixed methods research, 2029 participants from the 23 public higher education institutions in South Africa were surveyed. The online survey was sent to approximately 20 000 participants via email, with an invitation to participate in the study and information on the study. The dependent variable was employment status; three categories described the employed and two categories described the unemployed. Survey results were analysed using frequency distributions, chi-squared analysis and binary logistic regression. Thereafter, ten Black, low socio-economic status, unemployed graduates were interviewed telephonically. The interview transcripts were analysed thematically looking for both variation and consistency. The results showed that unemployment in the sample was 5.1%. Black graduates, graduates of low socio-economic status and graduates with difficulty accessing resources showed the highest prevalence of unemployment. Having received career guidance was not associated with employment status. The perceived causes of unemployment were lack of resources available to look for a job, the lack of connections to the labour market and discriminatory recruitment practices.

Student Number : 9510358Y - PhD thesis - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities

A la croisée des sciences économiques et de la sociologie du travail, cette thèse porte sur les conséquences sociales des récessions économiques et du chômage de masse, à travers le cas de la Grande Récession espagnole de 2008. Elle se centre sur la manière dont celle-ci a modifié les horizons temporels des ménages et conduit à des réaménagements en termes de sources de revenus, de trajectoires d’activité des chômeurs, de pratiques de consommation, ou de marché du travail informel. En raison de ce dernier, le statut même de chômeur se trouve remis en question. Pour montrer cela, la thèse met en regard une enquête de terrain approfondie avec des traitements de données issues du système de la statistique publique espagnole et européenne. L’enquête a notamment été conduite selon la méthode dite de l’ethnocomptabilité, qui consiste à faire des relevés (monétaires mais aussi temporels ou alimentaires) avec les ménages concernés pour documenter l’évaluation qu’ils portent sur leur budget. Cette démarche conduit à plusieurs résultats marquants quant aux changements sociaux qu’entraînent les récessions sur les sociétés contemporaines d’Europe occidentale, en particulier quant aux budgets de famille ou à la temporalité sur plusieurs années qu’implique ce type de choc macroéconomique. / At the crossroad between Economics and Sociology, this PhD-thesis deals with the social consequences of Recessions and mass unemployment, by focusing on the case of the 2008 Spanish Great Recession. It analyses the household time horizons to face this recessive context, in particular concerning remodelling of consumption, income sources and inequality, grassroot activities and professional trajectories of the unemployed. Such evolutions blur the formal definition of unemployment. For this, the study uses statistical analyses in view of fieldwork material. This latter has been done by using the « ethno compatibility » method, which consists in establishing precise and exhaustive household budgets, regarding their financial dimension, but also their temporal or taste aspects. Therefore this thesis is a contribution to a better understanding of the reaction of living standards in time of recession, tackling in particular its temporal and practical dimensions.

Failure, according to the academic canonical narrative, is anything other than a tenure-track professorship. The academic job hunt is fraught with unknowns: a time of fear, hope, and despair. This personal narrative follows the author’s three-year journey from doctoral candidate, to visiting assistant professor, to the unemployment line. Using a layered account and through a Foucauldian lens the author examines the academic success narrative, delving into the emotional bipolarity during the job search, and the use technologies of the self. It concludes with a reexamination of academic discourses and the canonical narrative of academic success as well as an appeal to continue to do good work.

Music therapy has been an established health profession for over 60 years serving a diverse population in different settings. Researchers studied the effects of burnout, career longevity, job satisfaction, and workforce analysis of clinical music therapy; however, no studies exist on the prevalence of unemployment and underemployment in clinical music therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of unemployment and underemployment in clinical music therapy. Participants who completed an anonymous online survey (n = 1,240) were board-certified music therapists who provided information on their current employment status. Results showed that the prevalence of unemployment among the participants was 5.78%, and prevalence of underemployment was 15.6%. Music therapists with more than 15 years of experience were more likely to work full-time than music therapists with 15 or fewer years of experience. Music therapists over 40 were no more likely to work full-time than music therapists who were 39 or younger. Implications for music therapy practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate some widely-held assumptions regarding the value of diversification as an economic strategy. It has ofien been suggested that economic diversity enhances economic performance, either by promoting higher levels of economic well-being or by improving the ability of regions to cushion the adverse effects of economic cycles. This is the conventional wisdom, but it has not been adequately tested, although some attempts have been made to relate measures of diversity to other economic indicators (e.g., Rodgers, MacLaughlin, Conkling). The current study explores this particular issue, and the results obtained should be of interest to economists, regional scientists, and development planners and policymakers. Shannon's entropy function, applied to the distribution of employment in different economic sectors, was used as an index of diversity. This measure allows not only comparison of changes in diversity over time, but also, through its decomposition properties, a means of analyzing the nature of such changes. Economic performance was assessed in terms of unemployment and per capita income, considered in four ways: the level of the variable, its rate of change over time, the degree of instability of the level, and the degree of instability of its rate of change. Eight hypotheses were formulated and tested with data from the counties of Oregon for the ten-year period from 1972 to 1981. To provide a comparative perspective for the Oregon investigation, a U.S. study was also conducted for the same period. Calculations of both studies revealed diversity to be negatively but very weakly correlated with unemployment; the Oregon finding, however, did not quite satisfy the 5% significance standard used throughout this research. While a weak positive association was found between diversity and per capita income of Oregon counties, a larger negative association was observed between the two variables in the U.S. study. These results can be explained either as an effect of differing levels of geographic aggregation or in terms of differences among the particular specializations of low diversity counties and states. For Oregon, relations between the variables for nonrecession years were stronger than for recession years. The study further showed that diversified counties of Oregon were more stable in unemployment and per capita income and showed lower rates of growth of unemployment and higher rates of growth of per capita income than the more specialized counties. None of these associations, however, was particularly strong. For the U.S. study, no evidence was found for any relation between diversity and either growth rates or stability. In general, correlations between diversity and income-based measures were larger than between diversity and unemployment-based measures; also, percentage changes associated with differences in diversity were considerably greater for the income-based measures. Although expected patterns of relationship were thus found to hold, if weakly, for the counties of Oregon, comparison with the national study suggests that results may not be generalizable to other, especially larger, geographic units. Whether diversification is useful for regional development depends at least partially on the specific character of the industries in the region's economy.

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I estimate the cyclicality of real wages for job stayers, and hires from both employment and from unemployment, using an administrative matched employer-employee dataset from Germany. I find that the wages of new hires appear to be lessprocyclical than the wages of job stayers. I propose an explanation based on countercyclical selection on match quality: when aggregate productivity is low, worker-firm matches have to be unusually productive to warrant job creation. The presence of the match quality selection effect is supported by the relationship between the initial aggregate conditions and the subsequent risk of separation: jobs started when unemployment is high are at a decreased risk of ending with a separation to unemployment, which suggests that they are positively selected. Motivated by the findings of the first chapter, I build a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides search and matching model with match-specific productivity and turnover costs. The model-generated wages and job durations have cyclical properties empirically established in the previous chapter: the wages of new hires are less procyclical than the wages of job stayers, and jobs started when productivity is high are at a higher risk of subsequent separation. I show that the relative cyclical properties of wages are generated by changes in average match-specific productivity for new hires relative to job stayers. Match-specific productivity is subjected to countercyclical selection: when aggregate productivity is low, match-specific productivity has to high to justify creating or maintaining a match. Due to turnover costs, countercyclical selection for new hires is stronger than for job stayers. Low match-specific productivity of matches started when aggregate productivity is high generates the positive relationship between initial aggregate productivity and subsequent risk of separation. In the third chapter, I examine the behavior of wages within employment spells, before separation from a job and after movement between jobs in order to evaluate hypotheses concerning job-to-job transitions. Using German administrative microdata, I establish three empirical findings. First, the properties of wage changes within employment spells and associated with job-to-job transitions are broadly similar. Second, wages deteriorate in the year preceding separation from a job, for all separations, including job-to-job transitions. The wage deterioration manifests as slower wage growth and lowering of real wages expected given workers' characteristics. Third, for job-to-job transitions wage growth after accession is faster if the initial wage is lower than the last wage in the previous job. This effect is not present for job-unemployment-job transitions. The second finding supports the notion that some job-to-job transitions are induced by the worsened job situation. The third suggests that, to some extent, workers might voluntarily make job-to-job transition that decreases their wages in expectation of higher wage growth in the future.

This dissertation contributes to the current understanding of labor markets, focusing on the use of micro level data and computational modeling to study the interaction of unemployment with various aspects of the macroeconomy. I address the fact that frictions in the labor market carry over into other dimensions of firms' and workers' decisions, such as a firm's incentive to utilize its current labor force, workers' participation in the labor market, and the decision to acquire or discharge debt. In Chapter 1, I study involuntary part-time employment over the business cycle. I document that the population at work part-time for economic reasons ($PTE$) is countercyclical, volatile, and transitory. Workers in $PTE$ are nearly three times more likely than the unemployed to return to full-time work in a given month, and seven times more likely than full-time workers to become unemployed. Using household survey data, I demonstrate that cyclical fluctuations in $PTE$ come from changes in the transition rates between full-time and part-time employment rather than between part-time and unemployment. Moreover, these movements are primarily due to within-job changes in hours. Accordingly, I model part-time work focusing on a firm's decision to hire, fire, or partially utilize its labor force. Firms in the model are heterogeneous in size and productivity, and are subject to search frictions. The model produces firm-level utilization of part-time employment which is consistent with observed worker flows, and varies across the size and age distributions of firms. Over the business cycle, the model matches the observed relative volatility of unemployment and $PTE$. Part-time labor utilization by firms increases the volatility of vacancies and unemployment in the model relative to the case with only an extensive margin. Chapter 2 studies the interaction of a participation margin in a labor market search model. Introducing a participation margin of whether or not to actively search for a job requires the use of large idiosyncratic shocks to workers' participation incentives in order to match monthly labor flows in the data. If we measure the participation transitions of workers outside of employment where search decisions are observable and apply this same transition process to employed workers, any search model will overstate the transition of workers out of employment to nonparticipation. Allowing the participation transition of workers to depend on their employment state fixes these flows, but this transition process is unobservable for employed workers. Taking advantage of the longer panel of the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participants, I estimate the markov process for participation transitions of employed workers using their observed search behavior before and after an employment spell. The difference in the transition process measured for employed and nonemployed workers is consistent with an interpretation of attachment to the labor force. I build a directed search model with a labor force participation margin subject to employment-dependent shocks and show that it can match the labor market flows in US data. Chapter 3, which is jointly authored with Chander S. Kochar, investigates the effects of student loans on labor market outcomes. The student loan market is the second largest source of household debt in the United States, with $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt. Unlike other sources of unsecured credit, student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Using data on college graduates from the 1993/03 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, we first identify that student loan debt has a significant negative effect on students' earnings after graduation. We show that the inability to discharge debt in bankruptcy is critical to produce this result within a simple search theoretic framework. We propose a richer model with student loan debt and a delinquency/default decision to study the effects of recent changes to student loan policies on the labor market and delinquency outcomes of college graduates.