Building on a large administrative micro data set for the time span 19752004 we look at lifetime unemployment for West … German birth cohorts 1950 to 1954. Descriptive evidence shows a highly uneven distribution of unemployment in West Germany … professional career while almost half of the total amount of unemployment fell upon 5% of the individuals covered. We employ …

The empirical literature on unemployment almost exclusively focuses on the duration of distinct unemployment spells. In … unemployment (defined as the total length of all unemployment spells over a 25-year period). This new perspective enables us to … answer questions regarding the long-term distribution and determinants of unemployment for West German birth cohorts 1950 …