{"title":"On the social opportunity cost of unemployment","authors":"P. Johansson, B. Kriström","doi":"10.1080/17487870.2020.1785300","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The handling of unemployment is a central issue in cost–benefit analysis. Typically, the shadow price of employing an unemployed is derived by considering a marginal change in the employment constraint faced by an unemployed or rather an underemployed. In contrast, in this paper, we consider the discrete shift from unemployment to (full) employment. The result provides guidance how to estimate the social cost of recruiting otherwise unemployed to a project. It is shown that the social cost is overestimated by using the private reservation wage. The common practice of adding different cost items is shown to be flawed.","PeriodicalId":51737,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Policy Reform","volume":"25 1","pages":"229 - 239"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2020-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17487870.2020.1785300","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Economic Policy Reform","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17487870.2020.1785300","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
ABSTRACT The handling of unemployment is a central issue in cost–benefit analysis. Typically, the shadow price of employing an unemployed is derived by considering a marginal change in the employment constraint faced by an unemployed or rather an underemployed. In contrast, in this paper, we consider the discrete shift from unemployment to (full) employment. The result provides guidance how to estimate the social cost of recruiting otherwise unemployed to a project. It is shown that the social cost is overestimated by using the private reservation wage. The common practice of adding different cost items is shown to be flawed.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Economic Policy Reform focuses on the analysis of economic policy reform. The journal draws upon what lessons can be learned from the successes and failures of countries undertaking reforms and how existing theories can be developed to shed light on positive as well as normative aspects of the reform process. The Journal of Economic Policy Reform encourages work from economists and political economy analysts on policies to promote growth and reduce poverty, intellectual property rights, aid versus trade, debt and debt relief, taxation and social security systems, surveys of key reform issues, as well as on corruption, democracy, emerging markets and the role of multilateral institutions.