The US labour force participation debacle: learning from the contrast with Britain

"This paper uses the marked divergence in labour force participation trends between the US and the UK to probe underlying drivers and implications for recent US poor performance. Contrary to a common US narrative, our comparative perspective suggests that the relative decline in US labour force...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Richiardi, Matteo, Nolan, Brian, Kenworthy, Lane
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Colchester 2018
ISER
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19303202124911214849-The-uS-labour-force-participat.htm
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author Richiardi, Matteo
Nolan, Brian
Kenworthy, Lane
author_facet Richiardi, Matteo
Nolan, Brian
Kenworthy, Lane
collection Library items
description "This paper uses the marked divergence in labour force participation trends between the US and the UK to probe underlying drivers and implications for recent US poor performance. Contrary to a common US narrative, our comparative perspective suggests that the relative decline in US labour force participation is not confined to the (white) male population: the divergence in female participation rate is even more pronounced. We also do not find evidence that the poor US performance is linked to some structural changes brought about by the financial crisis; instead, it is a more pervasive, longer-run phenomenon. Our multivariate analysis seeks to disentangle age, cohort, and period effects, and shows that the US is particularly ill-equipped to deal with the looming ageing of the Baby Boom generation. An Oaxaca decomposition shows that the relative decline of US participation rates with respect to the UK is roughly equally attributable to characteristics, which have become less favourable over time, and the impact of those characteristics, which have become more adverse to participation."
format TEXT
geographic United Kingdom
USA
id 19303202124911214849_53d6bcd029554fa28bf5d94264a727f8
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19303202124911214849_53d6bcd029554fa28bf5d94264a727f8
is_hierarchy_title The US labour force participation debacle: learning from the contrast with Britain
language English
physical 48 p.
Digital
publishDate 2018
publisher Colchester
ISER
spellingShingle Richiardi, Matteo
Nolan, Brian
Kenworthy, Lane
labour force participation
labour market
business cycle
comparison
The US labour force participation debacle: learning from the contrast with Britain
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=135702495398
title The US labour force participation debacle: learning from the contrast with Britain
topic labour force participation
labour market
business cycle
comparison
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19303202124911214849-The-uS-labour-force-participat.htm