Working Paper
Family Welfare and the Cost of Unemployment
Abstract: This paper calculates the cost of an unemployment shock in terms of family welfare. We find that, overall, families face an average annualized expected dollar equivalent welfare loss of $1,156 when the unemployment rate rises by 1 percentage point. The average welfare loss for married families is greater than for single families and increases with education. We then estimate that a 1.8 percent shock to purchasing power would generate the same amount of overall welfare loss as a one-percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate.
JEL Classification: D19; E52; I30; J22;
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https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/working-papers-federal-reserve-bank-atlanta-8586/family-welfare-cost-unemployment-657141
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Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Part of Series: FRB Atlanta Working Paper
Publication Date: 2017-09-01
Number: 2017-7