Finding an explanation for the rise and persistence of European unemployment has been one of the main research programmes of labour economists during the last decade. In this doctoral thesis, we contribute to this literature by questioning the causes of unemployment persistence in Belgium. To that purpose, we conduct an in-depth econometric analysis of the flows out of unemployment in this country. In Chapters 2 and 3, we study the behaviour of the exit rate out of unemployment over duration and calendar time. In Chapter 3, we investigate whether this behaviour differs according to the place of living and the skill level, as measured by the level of education. Finally, in Chapter 4, we determine to what extent the divergences in the rate of flowing from unemployment between workers with different levels of education can be explained by a skill mismatch phenomenon and/or by a job competition story. By refining the causes of unemployment persistence in Belgium, our doctoral research also contributes to the design of more effective labour market policies.

Finding an explanation for the rise and persistence of European unemployment has been one of the main research programmes of labour economists during the last decade. In this doctoral thesis, we contribute to this literature by questioning the causes of unemployment persistence in Belgium. To that purpose, we conduct an in-depth econometric analysis of the flows out of unemployment in this country. In Chapters 2 and 3, we study the behaviour of the exit rate out of unemployment over duration and calendar time. In Chapter 3, we investigate whether this behaviour differs according to the place of living and the skill level, as measured by the level of education. Finally, in Chapter 4, we determine to what extent the divergences in the rate of flowing from unemployment between workers with different levels of education can be explained by a skill mismatch phenomenon and/or by a job competition story. By refining the causes of unemployment persistence in Belgium, our doctoral research also contributes to the design of more effective labour market policies.

This paper is analyzing the unemployment duration difference of individuals under different high school programs in Sweden. The cause of the analysis has from stemmed from different fields of study and its effect on employment positions in the labour market. We see education as a factor of key importance. In addition to research on an education level, the type of study also plays an important role. Therefore, how different school programs affect unemployment duration becomes the central question we try to answer in this paper. To pursue a clear analysis structure, we start with previous studies on an education level and show the author’s interest into the research of the field of study’s effect on unemployment. Job search theory is applied to do analysis on the data. Then, an empirical analysis of unemployment duration is conducted. This is done through linear regression using the least-squares method. Finally, conclusions are made as well as some policy implications and ideas for further research.

Cette thèse vise à vérifier, à partir de données françaises, l’hypothèse d’Oswald selon laquelle la propriété immobilité serait un frein à la flexibilité du marché du travail et entraînerait donc un taux de chômage plus élevé. Le premier chapitre présente une synthèse de la littérature récente s’intéressant à la vérification de cette hypothèse. Le deuxième chapitre analyse l’effet du statut résidentiel sur les taux de retour à l’emploi. Les résultats empiriques montrent que les propriétaires ont plus de chance d’accéder à des emplois locaux, mais plus faible chance d’accéder à des emplois impliquant une mobilité résidentielle. Le troisième chapitre cherche à apporter un éclairage supplémentaire sur le comportement de recherche d’emploi des propriétaires selon qu'ils sont accédants ou non. Les résultats empiriques indiquent que les accédants à la propriété sortent plus vite du chômage tandis que les propriétaires détenant un stock d'actifs financiers élevé restent plus longtemps au chômage. Enfin, le quatrième chapitre propose un modèle théorique à agents hétérogènes afin d'analyser les effets du statut résidentiel et des politiques publiques sur les taux de retour à l'emploi. Nos résultats révèlent que la mobilité des propriétaires et des locataires est affectée par les coûts de mobilité et que le plus faible taux de sortie du chômage des propriétaires s’explique essentiellement par la stratégie d’accession à la propriété et par un effet de richesse. / This thesis seeks to verify, from French data, the Oswald hypothesis, according to which homeownership would be a hindrance to labor market’s flexibility and thus result in a higher unemployment rate. The first chapter presents a synthesis of recent literature seeking to verify this hypothesis. The second chapter analyzes the effect of residential status on rates return-to-employment. Empirical findings show that owners have more likely to access local jobs, but less likely to access jobs involving residential mobility. The second chapter investigates the effect of housing tenure status on unemployment duration. Empirical findings indicate that constrained owners leave faster unemployment, while owners holding a large stock of financial assets remain longer unemployed. Finally, the fourth chapter proposes a model with heterogeneous agents to analyze the effects of residential status and public policies on rates return-to-employment. Our results show that the cost of mobility affects the geographical mobility and the lowest exit rate of unemployment to owners is mainly due to the strategy of homeownership and a wealth effect.

O objetivo do presente estudo à o de analisar os principais determinantes do salÃrio de reserva e da duraÃÃo do desemprego, utilizando como evidÃncia a base de dados da Pesquisa de PadrÃo de Vida do IBGE (1996-1997). Para tanto, duas metodologias economÃtricas sÃo utilizadas. Na anÃlise de salÃrio de reserva, estima-se uma equaÃÃo de salÃrios, cujo principal determinante utilizado à a duraÃÃo do desemprego. A estimaÃÃo utiliza mÃnimos quadrados em dois estÃgios para atenuar o viÃs de simultaneidade presente. Os resultados mostram que a duraÃÃo do desemprego afeta negativamente o salÃrio de reserva do trabalhador. Esse resultado està de acordo com a evidÃncia empÃrica internacional. Na anÃlise de duraÃÃo, estima-se a funÃÃo risco empÃrica a partir dos modelos de Risco Proporcional e Proporcional de Cox, com e sem heterogeneidade nÃo-observada. Os parÃmetros estimados possuem os sinais usuais, com exceÃÃo da dummy para sexo. O risco de sair do desemprego à monotonicamente crescente inicialmente, e, apÃs a inclusÃo de heterogeneidade nÃo observada, passa a apresentar um perfil nÃo-monotÃnico. Esses resultados oferecem uma perspectiva nova para tentar entender as mudanÃas ocorridas no mercado de trabalho brasileiro durante a dÃcada de 90. / The objective of this study is to analyze the main determinants of reservation wages and unemployment duration using as empirical evidence the PPV - Pesquisa de PadrÃo de Vida from IBGE (1996-1997). For this purpose, two econometric methodologies are used. For reservation wages, we estimate a traditional wage regression model whose main determinant used was unemployment duration. In order to attenuate simultaneity bias, two-stage regressions are used. The results show that unemployment duration negatively affects the workersâ reservation wages. This corroborates international evidence. Regarding the analysis of duration, we estimate proportional hazards models, with and without unobserved heterogeneity. The estimated parameters have the usual signals, except for the dummy for sex. The risk of leaving unemployment raises initially, and then, after including unobserved heterogeneity, shows a non-monotonic profile. These results offer a new perspective to try to understand the changes that have occurred in the Brazilian labor market during the 90âs.

Geographic space is an important friction preventing the instantaneous matching of unemployed workers to job vacancies. Cities reduce spatial frictions by decreasing the average distance between potential match partners. Owing to these search efficiencies, theories of agglomeration predict that unemployed workers in larger labor markets find employment faster than observationally similar workers in smaller markets. Existing studies rely on cross-sectional variation in aggregate unemployment rates across spatially distinct labor markets to test for scale effects in job search. A major difficulty with these studies is that the unemployment rate is, at any given time, simultaneously the incidence and duration of unemployment. Therefore, conclusions about unemployment exits using the unemployment rate are confounded by transitions into unemployment. This dissertation examines the relationship between market scale unemployment duration for permanently laid off workers in the U.S. Using a large sample of individual unemployment spells in 259 MSAs, proportional hazard model estimates predict a negative relationship between market scale and the hazard of exiting unemployment. This effect is strengthened when space is explicitly controlled for and measured with greater precision. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that search efficiencies lead workers to increase their reservation wages. 2SLS estimates show that re-employment earnings for permanently laid off workers increase with market scale after controlling for endogenous search duration. These effects are robust to standard controls, as well as controls for local labor market conditions. These results challenge the view that search efficiencies lead to lower unemployment rates through faster job-finding rates.

Poverty analysis has been confined to incidence studies in Turkey. In the last decade research has focused on poverty persistence referred to as &bdquo / new poverty

ABSTRACT ESSAYS ON UNEMPLOYMENT IN TURKEY TaS&ccedil / i, H. Mehmet Ph.D., Department of Economics Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Aysit Tansel March 2005, 223 pages In this study we examine the Turkish labor market by using the Household Labor Force Survey data for the years 2000 and 2001. There are three main essays in this study. In the first essay, the determinants of transitions between the labor market states of employment, unemployment, and out-of-labor force are examined by using multinomial-logit models. We observe from the transitions out of employment that workers with low education and those working in the non-public sector have a higher risk of losing their job than those with higher education and those working in the public sector. In the second essay, grouped duration approach is used to find the determinants of unemployment duration and test whether there is an evidence of duration dependence in unemployment. In the third essay, we distinguish the first-time job-seekers from the other job-seekers, and analyze the determinants of unemployment duration for these groups, separately. The last two parts of this study shows the main characteristics of the short-term and long-term unemployed people in Turkey. We find that individual and demographic characteristics as well as local labor market conditions are important factors in explaining the duration of unemployment for working-age groups. We observe that individuals with higher education (i.e. graduated from a university) have shorter unemployment duration than those with lower education (i.e. primary, middle and high school graduates). Our overall findings (both from transition and duration applications) suggest that women are in the disadvantaged position in the Turkish labor market. Further, regardless of gender difference, we observe that labor market conditions are significant determinant of transitions in the labor market. The same is also observed in the unemployment duration part for all data as well as for both first-time and other job-seekers.

A lo largo de los ultimos diez años los economistas hemos reconocido que en muchos casos las decisiones individuales se ven afectadas por las decisiones, los comportamientos las preferencias de otros agentes no solamente atraves del mercado sino tambien directamente por imitacion o aprendimiento, por el desarrollo de reglas sociales compartidas, por la difusion de informacion. Muchos estudios han estudiado estos mecanismos en varios contextos. Entre otros destacan la educacion, el mercado laboral, la criminalidad, las habitudines sanitarias. La relevancia de estos efectos de neighborhood es positiva y normativa a la vez. Por un lado, su existencia contribuye a la comprension de la extrema variabilidad de algunos fenomenos economicos entre grupos de individuos aparentemente homogeneos. Por otro lado, su existencia es una componente fundamental para el desarollo de intervenciones eficientes por parte del policy maker. Los estudios de la tesis analizan estos efectos en el contexto de las decisiones esscolares y en el mercado laboral. En el primer capitulo se muestra como la decision y el exito en completar la educacion segundaria por parte de los varones adolescentes afecta positivamente la de las mujeres de la misma edad residentes en las mismas ciudades. La muestra campionaria utilizada permite conlcuir que la correlacion entre los exitos de los varones y de las mujeres corresponde de hecho a una relacion causal entre las dos variables. Se concluye que cualquier intervencion que consiga aumentar la probabilidad de completar los estudios segundarios de los varones del uno por ciento tendrà como consequencia tambien un aumento de la probabilidad de las mujeres adolescentes de completar estos estudios entre 0.6 y 0.7 por ciento. En el segundo capitulo se evaluan los efectos sobre la durada del paro de pertenecer a un grupo social mas amplio.

Cette thèse présente le modèle de recherche d’emploi en partant du modèle élémentaire pour aboutir à un modèle destiné à analyser les mécanismes d’incitation à la reprise d’emploi. Le mécanisme analysé est celui du Revenu de Solidarité Active. La première partie sert à mettre en place les éléments théoriques nécessaires aux modèles de la seconde partie. On part du modèle élémentaire en élargissant le débat aux modèles plus complexes et moins restrictifs en termes d’hypothèses. Cette partie est ponctuée d’analyses empiriques effectuées sur les données de l’Enquête emploi de 2006. La seconde partie tente d’analyser les effets du RSA sur le comportement de recherche des travailleurs à bas niveau de qualification dans le cadre du modèle de recherche d’emploi en utilisant les méthodes de simulations numériques calibrées sur l’Enquête emploi pour obtenir des résultats. / This thesis presents the job-search model, starting from the elementary model to reach a model analyzing mechanisms designed to enhance employment recovery. This study concerns the French active solidarity income mechanism (Revenu de Solidarité Active or RSA). The first part will allow us to implement the theoretical elements we will need in the second part. In the first part, we will start with the elementary model, and then widen the debate to more complex models and less restrictive assumptions. We will punctuate this part with empirical analysis based on the 2006 employment survey data. The second art is aimed at analyzing the effects of the RSA on the job search behavior of workers, especially those with low levels of ualification. We will use numerical simulation methods calibrated on the employment survey in order to achieve results.