The Private and Social Costs of Unemployment / Martin Feldstein.

By:

Feldstein, Martin

Contributor(s):

National Bureau of Economic Research

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w0223.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1977.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Online resources:

Available additional physical forms:

Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers

Abstract: This short note emphasizes and illustrates two basic points: (1) The private costs of unemployment, i.e., the costs borne by the unemployed themselves, vary substantially and are often extremely low. This low private cost is an important cause of the permanently high unemployment rate in the United States. (2) The social costs of unemployment, i.e., the costs of unemployment to the nation as a whole regardless of how they are distributed, must be judged by considering the specific policy by which a worker would be reemployed. It is wrong to regard unemployment as either without cost (because the unemployed enjoy the opportunity for job search and leisure) or as having a cost equal to lost output. Examples are given to show that output may overstate or understate true social cost, depending on the options available for reemployment.

Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w0223 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

Total holds: 0

Collection: Colección NBER Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	Next
Previous	nber w0220 Occupational Licensing and the Inter-State Mobility of Professionals /	nber w0221 Taxation and Aggregate Factor Supply: Preliminary Estimates /	nber w0222 The Cumulative Unanticipated Change in Interest Rates: Evidence on the Misintermediation Hypothesis /	nber w0223 The Private and Social Costs of Unemployment /	nber w0224 The Earnings Function: A Glimpse Inside the Black Box /	nber w0225 Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable /	nber w0226 Fluctuation in Equilibrium Unemployment /	Next

December 1977.

This short note emphasizes and illustrates two basic points: (1) The private costs of unemployment, i.e., the costs borne by the unemployed themselves, vary substantially and are often extremely low. This low private cost is an important cause of the permanently high unemployment rate in the United States. (2) The social costs of unemployment, i.e., the costs of unemployment to the nation as a whole regardless of how they are distributed, must be judged by considering the specific policy by which a worker would be reemployed. It is wrong to regard unemployment as either without cost (because the unemployed enjoy the opportunity for job search and leisure) or as having a cost equal to lost output. Examples are given to show that output may overstate or understate true social cost, depending on the options available for reemployment.