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Does Long-term Unemployment Reduce a Person’s Chance of a Job? (1991)

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Tackling Unemployment
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Abstract

The proportion of unemployed people who leave unemployment within a given time period is much lower for those who have been unemployed for long durations. For example, in Britain in early 1984 the proportion was 4 per cent per quarter for men who had been unemployed for over four years, compared with 40 per cent for men unemployed under three months (see Figure 6.1). Two possible explanations have been offered. (1) People may differ in their chances of employment, so that low-probability people are disproportionately represented among the long-term unemployed. (2) Long duration may actually reduce a given individual’s probability of leaving unemployment.

Economica, 58 (229) (1991), pp. 93–106 We are extremely grateful to Hartmut Lehmann for all the empirical work in this paper, and to Jonathan Haskel and Peter Lanjouw for help with previous drafts. We also thank the ESRC for financial support.

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© 1999 Richard Layard

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Jackman, R. (1999). Does Long-term Unemployment Reduce a Person’s Chance of a Job? (1991). In: Tackling Unemployment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379206_6

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