Unemployment: The silent epidemic

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines two key aspects of unemployment-its propagation mechanism and socioeconomic costs. It identifies a key feature of this macroeconomic phenomenon: it behaves like a disease. A detailed assessment of the transmission mechanism and the existing pecuniary and nonpecuniary costs of unemployment suggests a fundamental shift in the policy responses to tackling joblessness. To stem the contagion effect and its outsized social and economic impact, fiscal policy can be designed around two criteria for successful disease intervention-preparedness and prevention. The paper examines how a job guarantee proposal uniquely meets those two requirements. It is a policy response whose merits include much more than its macroeconomic stabilization features, as discussed in the literature. It is, in a sense, a method of inoculation against the vile effects of unemployment. The paper discusses several preventative features of the program.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 895

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; Fiscal Policy ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Labor Economics Policies
• Subject: Unemployment ; Epidemic ; Mortality ; Morbidity ; Health ; Scarring Effects ; Crime ; Family ; Job Guarantee ; Labor Market Dynamics ; Involuntary Job Loss ; Prevention

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Tcherneva, Pavlina R.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
• (where): Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/173504
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET