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CONSTRAINED BY HOURS AND RESTRICTED IN WAGES: THE QUALITY OF MATCHES IN THE LABOR MARKET
Author(s) -
BENDER KEITH A.,
SKÅTUN JOHN DOUGLAS
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2008.00159.x
Subject(s) - economics , underemployment , labour economics , quality (philosophy) , meaning (existential) , economic surplus , unemployment , welfare , macroeconomics , market economy , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , psychotherapist
This paper examines the explicit loss born by workers who face constraints in their working hours by analyzing differences in actual and desired hours and wages. Men tend to be underemployed while women are evenly split between over‐ and underemployment. Losses in surplus are generally small, but 10% of underemployed men and women experience losses of more than 34% or 50% of surplus, respectively. The loss measure is also an important determinant in predicting labor market transitions, meaning increases in surplus losses generate a higher probability of changing from workers’ present jobs or changing the number of hours. ( JEL J22, J41)