There is a considerable body of evidence showing that it is the inflow into unemployment that drives the unemployment rate up and down and so from a policy point of view an important question is whether or not movements in state inflow reflect the impact of state-specific shocks or common shocks...

In this paper we investigate the behaviour of net flows of persons between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force in Australia between 1979-2003 and the relationship of these flows to changes in the unemployment rate over that period. We find that: flows from unemployment to...

We explore a new approach to understanding the evolution of the unemployment rate in Australia. Specifically, we use gross worker flows data to study the consequences of assuming that there is no unique equilibrium rate of unemployment but rather a continuum of stochastic equilibrium rates which...

In this paper we examine unemployment rate dispersion across the (statistical) regions in the Melbourne metropolitan area. We find that the level of dispersion is positively correlated with the unemployment rate in all the regions taken together and that the ‘elasticity’ of dispersion with...

This paper addresses five related questions. What are the ‘stylised facts’ about the behaviour of flows into and out of unemployment and the Unemployment Rate in Australia, especially in recessions? Why does the number of persons flowing out of Unemployment rise in recessions? How does...

This paper explores the following question - Has there been any long-run increase (or decrease) in the ‘incidence’ of long-term unemployment once we have corrected for cyclical factors? Our research leads us to conclude that: (i) the incidence of male long-term unemployment has been neither...

The paper seeks to 'explain' certain stylised facts in relation to flows into and out of Unemployment and especiaIly to identify the 'proximate' determinants of the amplitude and the frequency of fluctuations in the Unemployment Rate over the course of the business cycle. Since the evolution of...

In this paper we deal with five related questions. What are the 'stylised facts'about the behaviour of flows into and out of unemployment and the Unemployment Rate in Australia, especially in recessions? Why does the number of persons flowing out of Unemployment (including the number flowing...

In this paper we examine the nature of disparities in regional (state) unemployment rates in Australia over the period 1978-99 and their relationship to the national unemployment rate. Using co-integration analysis, we find that there is a negative relationship between the two implying that, as...