Volume 21, Number 2 (Spring) 1986
Moser, James W. 1986. "Demographic and Time Patterns in Layoffs and Quits." Journal of Human Resources 21(2):178-199.
This al1icle decomposes the monthly transition from employment to unemployment as measured by gross flow data into layoffs and quits for ten age-sex groups. It examines three patterns for each subflow over the 1967-83 periods and compares age and sex groups. It finds that layoffs are more cyclically sensitive than quits into unemployment and that trend is a more influential determinant of layoffs than business cycle factors for most males whereas the opposite is true for most females. Other researchers have not found such robust cyclical results, probably because they have not distinguished between layoffs and quits in the employment-to-unemployment transition. Policy implications are briefly discussed.
The author is an economist at the Center for Health Policy Research of the American Medical Association in Chicago. He wishes to acknowledge Larry Chenault, James Dunlevy. Lawrence M. Kahn, William J. Moore, Daniel Seiver, and two anonymous referees who provided very useji41 suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. He adds that they are not responsible for remaining errors of commission or omission. The bulk of this research was completed while the author was at Miami University in Ohio.
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