Understanding the Outcomes of Older Job Losers

We use an unusually rich Canadian survey to examine how post-job-loss behaviour and outcomes vary with age of the job loser. We find that older job losers experience greater post-displacement joblessness, and are less likely to return quickly to satisfactory employment. We show that this apparent age effect is not a job tenure effect or wealth effect. We also find that older job losers, compared to mid-career job losers, are as likely to report searching for work, but that they search less intensely (reporting fewer hours of search, and lower out of pocket expenditures on search). They are also less likely to retrain, less likely to undertake a geographic move, and less likely to switch occupations. Thus, the data suggest older job losers are less likely to make career investments after job loss. This may be a rational response to a shorter time horizon, or to more limited labour market opportunities.job loss, job search, older workers

Incorporating Human Beliefs and Behaviors into Wildlife Ecology

Like much of the global biosphere, wildlife species have experienced rapid declines during the Anthropocene. Wildlife ecologists have responded to these crises by developing a range of technologies, techniques, and large datasets, which together have revolutionized the field, provided novel insights into the movements and behaviors of animals, and identified new risks and impacts to wildlife in a human-dominated world. While these advances have been vitally important, wildlife ecology has been slower to recognize and incorporate humans themselves into its new research domains. The chapters of this dissertation explore methods for better incorporating human behaviors, beliefs, actions, and infrastructure into the theories and approaches in wildlife ecology that have flourished in the last two decades. The research presented here demonstrates the importance of linking human beliefs and behaviors to wildlife ecology both by presenting novel findings and by showing the opportunities missed when narrow approaches are applied to complex socio-ecological problems.In Chapter 1, I provide a general introduction on the theories underlying this research, contextualize the research questions in light of the loss and recovery of large predators, and describe the research site where I collected much of the data for this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I apply the methods of movement ecology to some of the first fine-scale telemetry data collected on rifle hunters. I draw conclusions about their individual, site-level, and regional-level hunting behaviors and discuss the broad implications of these findings for hunting management. In Chapter 3, I examine livestock-predator conflict using approaches from both ecology and the social sciences. I describe a form of selection bias that is likely widespread but unreported due to the omission of social data from ecological models of conflict, and I offer guidelines for combining and translating ecological and social research on conflict. In Chapter 4, I explore the ecological impacts of one of the most globally widespread human constructions, the fence. I show for the first time the potential extent of fencing at large scales and discuss the wide variety of ecological effects of fences for both humans and ecosystems. I further highlight biases and gaps in fence research that have thus far limited a complete understanding of the environmental effects of these features. In Chapter 5, I conclude by making recommendations regarding how research might better incorporate human perceptions, decisions, and actions into ecology

Nonstandard Forms and Measures of Employment and Unemployment in Transition: A Comparative Study of Estonia, Romania, and Russia

This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available labor force statistics relied upon in most studies of transition economy labor markets. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of employment and unemployment. Our calculations show that measured rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways can produce alternative employment rates that are sharply higher in Russia but much lower in Romania and slightly lower in Estonia, and alternative unemployment rates that are sharply higher in Romania and moderately higher in Estonia and Russia.nonstandard, work, data, unemployment, Estonia, Russia, Romania

Balancing risks and rewards: the logic of violence

Violence is widespread throughout the natural world, prominent examples being predatory violence between species, seasonal violent competition for mating rights and territories within species and food competition both within and between species. These interactions are generally between unrelated individuals with no social connection. There are, however, examples of violent behaviour which occurs within groups of individuals who otherwise cooperate to live, have significant social bonds and may also be related, and that is the primary focus of this paper. Examples are in the establishment and maintenance of dominance hierarchies, or in infanticide, where (usually) incoming males attempt to kill existing infants in a group. Such violence can seem paradoxical, but in fact is often perfectly logical for the individual perpetrating the violence, as distinct from the group as a whole. We discuss such situations from the perspective of evolutionary game theory, and also consider wider questions of interspecific violence

Nonstandard Forms and Measures of Employment and Unemployment in Transition: A Comparative Study of Estonia, Romania, and Russia

This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available employment and unemployment statistics that studies of transition economy labor markets have typically relied upon. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of labor force status. Our estimates show that measured employment and unemployment rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways can produce alternative employment rates that are sharply higher in Russia but much lower in Romania and slightly lower in Estonia, and alternative unemployment rates that are sharply higher in Romania and moderately higher in Estonia and Russia.employment, unemployment, Estonia, Romania, Russia

Survey Response Variation in the Current Population Survey

This paper investigates the problem of responseand coding errors in the Current Population Survey. It draws upon a potentially rich source o finformation for verifying survey answers, a three month matched sample of CPS respondents, to analyze whether individuals' questionnaire responses inadjacent months are mutually consistent.We focus primarily on reported durations of unemployment spells.For individuals who were coded as unemployed in two consecutive months and who experienced no intervening labor market withdrawal or employment,their reported duration in the second interview should exceed the first interview duration by about four weeks. However, this is not what survey responses show. In more than three quarters of all cases, reported durations in successive months are logically inconsistent. The reporting problemis not confined to spell durations. In 25 percent of all cases,the professed reason for unemployment changes as the unemployment spell progresses.Furthermore, analysis of labor force entrants shows that reported changes in labor force status between unemployment and not-in-the labor force are not reliable guides to actual behavior.We conclude that reported durations of unemployment, and to a lesser extent, reasons for unemployment, may be very misleading indicators of future behavior. Econometric analyses which focus on changes in individual behavior over time are likely to be badly flawed by spurious changes due to reporting errors. These problems with the Current Population Survey, one of the best sample surveys available, may suggest far greater difficulties in interpreting other sources of panel data.

Discouraging Workers: Estimating the Impacts of Macroeconomic Shocks on the Search Intensity of the Unemployed

Discouraged and marginally attached workers have received increased attention from policy makers over the past several years. Theoretically, periods of recessions and high unemployment should directly influence individualÕs decisions whether or not to search for employment, creating more discouraged workers. Since 2003, there have been a number of large macroeconomic shocks (e.g. housing bubble, credit crunch, mass layoffs, etc.) which should affect job search intensity. To date, the relative magnitude of these shocks on the search intensity of the unemployed (but currently undiscouraged workers) has not been established in the literature. Using daily time use dairies from the American Time Use Survey 2003-2009 allow us to proxy search intensity directly by aggregating time spent in minutes on several job search activities: time spent sending out resumes, contacting employers, interviewing, reading ads on the internet and so forth. Results from Tobit estimation indicate the existence of significant negative wealth effects on search intensity through changes in the stock market and housing values that help explain the apparent acyclicality of search intensity observed in the data.search intensity, macroeconomic shocks, discouraged workers, business cycles

Job Search and Unemployment Insurance: New Evidence from Time Use Data

This paper provides new evidence on job search intensity of the unemployed in the U.S., modeling job search intensity as time allocated to job search activities. The main findings are: 1) the average unemployed worker in the U.S. devotes about 41 minutes to job search on weekdays, which is substantially more than his or her European counterpart; 2) workers who expect to be recalled by their previous employer search substantially less than the average unemployed worker; 3) across the 50 states and D.C., job search is inversely related to the generosity of unemployment benefits, with an elasticity between -1.6 and -2.2; 4) the predicted wage is a strong predictor of time devoted to job search, with an elasticity in excess of 2.5; 5) job search intensity for those eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) increases prior to benefit exhaustion; 6) time devoted to job search is fairly constant regardless of unemployment duration for those who are ineligible for UI. A nonparametric Monte Carlo technique suggests that the relationship between job search effort and the duration of unemployment for a cross-section of job seekers is only slightly biased by length-based sampling.unemployment, unemployment insurance, job search, time use, unemployment benefits, inequality

Job Search and Unemployment Insurance: New Evidence from Time Use Data

This paper provides new evidence on job search intensity of the unemployed in the U.S., modeling job search intensity as time allocated to job search activities. The main findings are: 1) the average unemployed worker in the U.S. devotes about 41 minutes to job search on weekdays, which is substantially more than his or her European counterpart; 2) workers who expect to be recalled by their previous employer search substantially less than the average unemployed worker; 3) across the 50 states and D.C., job search is inversely related to the generosity of unemployment benefits, with an elasticity between -1.6 and -2.2; 4) the predicted wage is a strong predictor of time devoted to job search, with an elasticity in excess of 2.5; 5) job search intensity for those eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) increases prior to benefit exhaustion; 6) time devoted to job search is fairly constant regardless of unemployment duration for those who are ineligible for UI. A nonparametric Monte Carlo technique suggests that the relationship between job search effort and the duration of unemployment for a cross-section of job seekers is only slightly biased by length-based sampling.unemployment, unemployment insurance, job search, time use, unemployment benefits, inequality