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Author: Tristao, Ignez M.
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Tristao, Ignez M.
Portfolio of Employment Choices: How Important is Diversification for Unemployment Duration and Wage Loss?
Presented: New York, NY, Society of Labor Economists Annual Meeting, May 2008.
Also: http://client.norc.org/jole/SOLEweb/8313.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Opinion Research Center - NORC
Keyword(s): Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Human Capital; Modeling; Occupations; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Unemployment Duration; Wage Gap; Wage Models; Wages; Work History

There are substantial differences in unemployment durations and reemployment outcomes for workers in different occupations. This paper shows that this variation can be explained in part by differences in occupational employment risk that arise from two sources: (1) the diversification of occupational employment across industries, and (2) the volatility of industry employment fluctuations, including sectoral comovements. The analysis combines data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages with the NLSY79 male sample. Applying a competing risk duration model, this analysis finds that unemployed workers in high employment risk occupations have 5.2% lower hazard ratios of leaving unemployment to a job in the same occupation and have 4.9% higher wage losses upon reemployment than workers in low employment risk occupations." "The data set I use is the NLSY79. Relative to other micro data sets, the NLSY79 has two distinct features that make it the best data to answer my particular question. First, the NLSY79 work history data are available on a weekly basis. Since a significant number of unemployment spells are very short, this high frequency is quite important. Second, and most importantly, the NLSY79 is one of few data sets that provides a complete work history for a specific cohort, which allows researchers to analyze completed unemployment spells. This is one of the most desirable attributes of a data set for studying labor force transitions and unemployment duration, and it constitutes a significant advantage of the NLSY79 over the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, where unemployment spells are incomplete and cohorts change over time. In addition to the advantages mentioned above, the NLSY79 also has ability measures and has lower attrition rates than other longitudinal data sets (such as the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, or PSID). The downside of using the NLSY79 instead of the CPS is that I am able to analyze only individuals of a specific cohort that is still relatively young—in 2000, the individuals' age range was 35 to 43.
Bibliography Citation
Tristao, Ignez M. "Portfolio of Employment Choices: How Important is Diversification for Unemployment Duration and Wage Loss?" Presented: New York, NY, Society of Labor Economists Annual Meeting, May 2008.