BibTeX
@MISC{Ashenfelter78unemploymentas,
author = {Orley Ashenfelter},
title = {Unemployment as a Constraint on Labour Market Behaviour},
year = {1978}
}
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Abstract
This paper was written during stay at the Centre for Labour Economics at the London School of Economics and I am indebted to Richard Layard, David Metcalf and Steve Nickell for helpful discussions, and to Alan Blinder, John Pencavel and Albert Rees for comments on an earlier draft. Related versions of the paper were presented at the OECD Conference of Experts on the Structural Determinants of Employment and Unemployment, Paris, March 7-11, 1977 and at the Annual Conference of the Association of University Teachers of Economics, Swansea, Wales, March 28-30, 1977. I am indebted for financial support to the Guggenheim Foundation. INE}fPLOY}NT AS A CONSTRAINT ON I,ABOUR MARKET BEHAVIOUR Orley Ashenf elter* Even though the memory of the Great Depression of the Thirties still lingers in the background of professional discussions of unemployment, by now it has nearly faded away. The most influential modern work on the theory of unemployment 1 has treated it as a form of choice about the length of time to search for a job, and this has inspired empirical work on the impact of unemp].oyment benefits on the search process that could perhaps even be considered empirical tests of such theories. 2 Still, models of unemployment as search have seemed more plausible when the unemployed workers have quit their former jobs than when they have been laid off. Moreover, quits tend to be highest when aggregate unemployment is low, so that theories of search have sometimes been taken as most appropriate to discussions of unemployment just when there is little concern about it. Most recently this issue has been tackled head on and the distinction between voluntary quits and involuntary layoffs has been attacked as misguided because many laid off employees return to their former employers an...
Keyphrases
labour market behaviour ine fploy nt financial support oyment benefit search process albert rees richard layard little concern former job aggregate unemployment related version helpful discussion alan blinder empirical work john pencavel voluntary quits unemployed worker steve nickell annual conference david metcalf influential modern work university teacher great depression london school professional discussion oecd conference former employer empirical test labour economics abour market behaviour orley ashenf structural determinant involuntary layoff guggenheim foundation
