The Ins and Outs of Involuntary Part-time Employment

40 Pages Posted: 27 Dec 2018 Last revised: 17 Dec 2020

See all articles by Daniel Borowczyk-Martins

Daniel Borowczyk-Martins

Copenhagen Business School

Etienne Lalé

York University - Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; CIRANO; IZA

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Date Written: October 1, 2020

Abstract

We develop and implement a protocol to measure U.S. monthly time series of involuntary part-time employment stocks and flows from 1976 until today. Armed with these new data, we provide a comprehensive account of the cyclical dynamics of involuntary part-time work. We find that the recessionary increase in involuntary part-time employment is consistently driven by a jump in the transition probability from other employment states to involuntary part-time employment, and a drop in the reverse transition probability. We compare the dynamics of unemployment and involuntary part-time employment to argue that they reflect the operation of distinct labor-adjustment channels. While unemployment dynamics are driven by movements in job creation and destruction, the dynamics of involuntary part-time employment reflect changes in employers' labor utilization.

Keywords: Involuntary part-time employment, Unemployment, Labor market flows, Business cycles

JEL Classification: E24, E32, J21

Suggested Citation

Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel and Lalé, Etienne, The Ins and Outs of Involuntary Part-time Employment (October 1, 2020). Labour Economics, Vol. 67, 101940, 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3298925 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3298925

Daniel Borowczyk-Martins

Copenhagen Business School ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg C, DK - 2000
Denmark

Etienne Lalé (Contact Author)

York University - Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies ( email )

4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
(436) 736 5083 (Phone)

CIRANO ( email )

2020 rue University, 25th floor
Montreal H3C 3J7, Quebec
Canada

IZA ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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