Unemployment burden and its distribution: Theory and evidence from India

Sripad Motiram () and Karthikeya Naraparaju ()
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Sripad Motiram: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India
Karthikeya Naraparaju: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India

No 341, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: We develop a measure of unemployment that takes into account both the level and intensity of unemployment and that satisfies several desirable properties, including distribution sensitivity (dealing with differences among the unemployed). It can also be decomposed into mean and distributional components and contributions to unemployment by various subgroups of the population. We then apply this measure to understand unemployment in India using data from National Sample Surveys on employment and unemployment during the period 1993-2012. We show that unemployment has generally fallen in this period, but this finding has to be seen in light of considerable underemployment. Moreover, unemployment is driven to a greater extent by higher educated groups; the unemployment among these groups is also fairly substantial. The distribution of unemployment has also worsened. We explain these findings and suggest some policies.

Keywords: Measurement of unemployment; welfare costs of unemployment; distribution sensitivity; Indian unemployment. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J60 J64 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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