We use micro data from the Canadian Annual Work Patterns Survey for 1978, 1980 and 1982 to compare the distributions of the annual unemployment experiences of persons. Whether one groups the unemployed by age and sex or by major region, a smaller fraction of total weeks of unemployed is found in...

This paper examines the conceptual issues involved in measuring duration of completed spells of unemployment from Gross Flows. We find that such measures can avoid the "interruption" bias of Labour Force stock data, but that they cannot correct the oversampling of long spells. We also conclude...

Changes in demographic composition and industrial structure have been used to explain rising "natural" unemployment rates in Canada. We find the change in industry mix accommodated concurrent changes in labour force structure, but the substitution within industries, rather than changes in the...

This paper empirically examines entire distributions of unemployment spells according to a novel duration-share approach based on decile shares and Lorenz curves of unemployment. The approach is applied to Canadian micro-data. The approach reveals distinctive patterns of unemployment spell...

This paper reviews recent developments in unemployment research and policy, and their implications. Two international comparisons suggest that the tendency for the unemployed to exit the labour force rather than find employment may be weaker in Canada than in the U.S. and that layoffs may be...

The paper attempts to test one widely accepted corollary of the proposition that the availability of or increases in unemployment benefits have serious disincentive effects: namely, that the seasonality of employment will increase. The results based on an analysis of the dispersion of seasonal...

The widely used Cochrane-Orcutt and Hildreth-Lu procedures for estimating the parameters of a linear regression model with first-order serial correlation typically ignore the first observation. An alternative maximum likelihood procedure is recommended in this paper. This procedure is preferable...

This paper attempts to extend and implement the theory of best linear estimation to a simultaneous equation framework. The approach involves defining a general minimum mean square error estimator for the regression coefficients of a single equation in a simultaneous equation model. Such an...

The two-stage least squares simultaneous equation estimation procedure is shown to be identical to the modified two stage least squares estimator obtained by a) replacing the right-hand side endogenous variable in a single structural equation by their reduced form regression estimates; and b)...

This paper reexamines Feldstein's (1974) results of the effect of social security on private capital accumulation in the context of a simultaneous-equation model. The model incorporates dynamic feedback effects and is estimated by FIML to incorporate theoretical restrictions that are tested...