Did Timing Matter? Life Cycle Differences in Effects of Exposure to the Great Recession

Kevin Rinz

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: Exposure to a recession can have persistent, negative consequences, but does the severity of those consequences depend on when in the life cycle a person is exposed? I estimate the effects of exposure to the Great Recession on employment and earnings outcomes for groups defined by year of birth over the ten years following the beginning of the recession. With the exception of the oldest workers, all groups experience reductions in earnings and employment due to local unemployment rate shocks during the recession. Younger workers experience the largest earnings losses in percent terms (up to 13 percent), in part because recession exposure makes them persistently less likely to work for high-paying employers even as their overall employment recovers more quickly than older workers’. Younger workers also experience reductions in earnings and employment due to changes in local labor market structure associated with the recession. These effects are substantially smaller in magnitude but more persistent than the effects of unemployment rate increases.

Keywords: Great Recession; unemployment; earnings; labor market concentration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J30 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 129 pages
Date: 2019-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2019/CES-WP-19-25.pdf First version, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Did Timing Matter? Life Cycle Differences in Effects of Exposure to the Great Recession (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:19-25

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