On various ways of measuring unemployment, with applications to Switzerland

Joseph Deutsch; Yves Flückiger; Jacques Silber

doi:10.1016/S1049-2585(08)16012-4

On various ways of measuring unemployment, with applications to Switzerland

Joseph Deutsch, Yves Flückiger, Jacques Silber

Department of Economics

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper discusses first various ways of measuring unemployment and, borrowing ideas from the poverty measurement literature, proposes four more general unemployment indices which are parallel to Sen poverty index, to its generalization by Shorrocks, to the FGT, and to the Watts poverty indices. It then presents an empirical illustration based on Swiss data at the level of the "canton." More precisely, using the so-called Shapley decomposition, it computes the contribution to the difference between the value of each of these four unemployment indices in a given "canton" and in Switzerland as a whole, of three components measuring, respectively, the impact of differences in the traditional unemployment rate, in the average unemployment duration, and in the inequality in the unemployment durations. The paper ends by discussing the impact on the results obtained of assumptions made concerning the maximum unemployment duration.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Inequality and Opportunity
Subtitle of host publication	Papers from the Second ECINEQ Society Meeting
Editors	John Bishop, Buhong Zheng
Pages	259-284
Number of pages	26
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S1049-2585(08)16012-4
State	Published - 2008

Publication series

Name	Research on Economic Inequality
Volume	16
ISSN (Print)	1049-2585

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This paper was written while Jacques Silber was visiting the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA), Madrid. He wishes to thank FEDEA for its warm hospitality. All the authors acknowledge the financial support of SECO, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland, for a research project entitled “Analysis of regional unemployment inequalities in Switzerland.” Appendix A

Funding

This paper was written while Jacques Silber was visiting the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA), Madrid. He wishes to thank FEDEA for its warm hospitality. All the authors acknowledge the financial support of SECO, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland, for a research project entitled “Analysis of regional unemployment inequalities in Switzerland.” Appendix A

Funders	Funder number
SECO
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/S1049-2585(08)16012-4

Cite this

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On various ways of measuring unemployment, with applications to Switzerland. / Deutsch, Joseph; Flückiger, Yves; Silber, Jacques.
Inequality and Opportunity: Papers from the Second ECINEQ Society Meeting. ed. / John Bishop; Buhong Zheng. 2008. p. 259-284 (Research on Economic Inequality; Vol. 16).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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On various ways of measuring unemployment, with applications to Switzerland

Abstract

Publication series

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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