We use a new, matched worker-firm dataset for the United Kingdom to estimate the income loss resulting from firm closure and mass layoffs. We track workers for up to nine years after the displacement event, and the availability of predisplacement characteristics allows us to implement difference-in-differences estimators using propensity score…

This paper explores the causal link between income and fertility by analyzing women's fertility response to the large and permanent income shock generated by a husband's job displacement. I find that the shock reduces total fertility, suggesting that the causal effect of income on fertility is positive. A model that incorporates the time cost of…

This paper examines the impact of job loss on overall and cause-specific mortality. Using linked employer-employee data, we identified the workers displaced due to all establishment closures in Sweden in 1987 and 1988. Hence, we have extended the case study approach, which has dominated the plant closure literature. The overall mortality risk…

Data from the Displaced Worker Survey found that, for men, the duration of joblessness increases with the length of job tenure (15 years or more), consistent with the hypothesis that male workers base reservation wages on factors such as accumulated human capital that raise current wages more than potential wage offers. (SK)

The Dislocated Worker Survey underestimates the number of displaced for 1979-89 by about one-third. The bias results from the fact that respondents' memory of displacement over time, especially among blacks, people without a college education, and people with short tenure with an employer. (SK)

A sequential-regimes job search model tested the effect of advanced notice on the duration of joblessness. Maximum likelihood estimates using data from the 1984 and 1986 Dislocated Worker Surveys demonstrated that advance knowledge significantly shortened joblessness for most labor force groups. (SK)

Canadian displaced worker data show that predisplacement wages rise at about the same rate, but women lose more from displacement than men and loss increases with tenure. Results do not support the hypothesis that women accumulate less job-specific human capital; gender differences in job search may be a cause. (SK)