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Unemployment and household values: Distribution sensitive measures of unemployment

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  • Nolen, Patrick

Abstract

Headcount measures have been criticized as potentially inadequate when looking at changes in poverty or literacy over time or in determining the success of particular public policies. In this paper I argue that using the headcount measure of unemployment can be misleading as well. I utilize an externality argument similar to the one used in the literacy debate and provide a class of measures that capture externalities of employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Nolen, Patrick, 2013. "Unemployment and household values: Distribution sensitive measures of unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 354-362.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:24:y:2013:i:c:p:354-362
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2012.07.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Valenti, Paola, 2002. "Should We Be Concerned about the Distribution of Literacy across Households? An Axiomatic Investigation," Working Papers 02-15, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Behind and beyond the (head count) employment rate," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(3), pages 657-681, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Externalities; Networks; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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