Migration, unemployment and trade

Migration, Unemployment and Trade focuses on the issues of migration, welfare and unemployment in a trade and development framework. Several chapters of the book analyze the implications of internal labor mobility in a model designed to highlight its implications for regional welfare, urban unemployment, rural-urban dichotomy and structural adjustment. An important innovation in this work is the disaggregation of the economy and the use of separate utility functions to highlight non-homogeneity of preferences. The book also deals with international mobility of factors in different frameworks. In particular it concentrates on the highly emotive issue of legal and illegal migration. Thus this work incorporates interesting and important features of labor economics and factor mobility into trade and distortion theory.

Coping with economic deprivation during unemployment

The negative impact of unemployment on psychological health is well known. Less is known of the ways that people cope with the problems associated with unemployment, one of which is economic deprivation. This study examined the interrelationships between employment status (200 unemployed participants and 128 employed participants), economic deprivation, coping-efforts and psychological health. It also examined the moderating effect of coping on the relationship between economic deprivation (restriction of spending for material necessities and restriction of spending for meaningful leisure activity) and psychological health. The results suggest that economic deprivation is experienced differentially in terms of material necessities and meaningful leisure activities with unemployed respondents differing from employed on levels of deprivation for meaningful leisure activities but not for material necessities. Employment status, economic deprivation for meaningful leisure activity, solution-oriented coping and affective-based coping significantly predicted depressive affect and self-esteem. Depressive affect was also predicted by economic deprivation for material necessities. A number of significant two-way interactions show that the relationship between economic deprivation and psychological health was conditional upon the use of solution-oriented coping. Results also showed that the relationship between employment status and depressive affect was moderated by the use of affective-based coping. The incorporation of these findings into intervention programmes for unemployed persons is discussed.

Predicting self-esteem during unemployment: the effect of gender, financial deprivation, alternate roles, and social support

Two hundred and one unemployed men and women participated in a cross-sectional study that assessed self-esteem, financial deprivation, number of alternate roles, and use of social support. Financial deprivation, alternate roles, and social support each had a main effect on self-esteem. In addition, these variables interacted with gender to affect self-esteem. Specifically, financial deprivation had a greater negative association with self-esteem in men as compared with women. In contrast, alternate roles and social support had a stronger positive relationship to self-esteem in women than in men. The incorporation of these findings into intervention programs for unemployed persons is discussed.

Tourism, taxes and immiserization: A trade theoretic analysis

Many countries promote tourism as a device for earning foreign exchange and promoting domestic welfare and growth. In all these countries the non-traded goods (internationally not traded) are consumed by both domestic residents and tourists. It is well known that the relative price of non-traded goods and services is determined in the local market – hence the tourist demand results in monopoly power in trade for the host country. We use a very simple two-country model to demonstrate the specific nature of the offer curve and the trade equilibrium and the difficulties of taxation.

Reducing latent deprivation during unemployment: the role of meaningful leisure activity

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of meaningful leisure activity in reducing latent deprivation during unemployment. Samples of unemployed (N=201) and employed (N=128) participants were asked to rate their levels of latent deprivation using the Access to Categories of Experience Scale. They were also asked to complete the Profile of Mood States depression subscale, Adult Self-Perception Profile, Meaningful Leisure Activities Questionnaire, and to rate the frequency with which they engaged in social and solitary leisure activities. Results indicate that unemployed participants engaged in social leisure activities less frequently than employed participants and solitary leisure activities more frequently; and they reported higher perceived latent deprivation, higher depressive affect and lower self-esteem. Overall, these findings suggest that participation in leisure activities that are meaningful, rather than simply frequent, may be a constructive and readily achievable coping response during unemployment.

Modelling income group differences in the health and economic impacts of targeted food taxes and subsidies

Objective : To examine the effects, by income group, of targeted food taxes and subsidies on nutrition, health and expenditure in the UK.

Methods : A model based on consumption data and demand elasticity was constructed to predict the effects of four food taxation-subsidy regimens. Resulting changes in demand, expenditure, nutrition, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality were estimated.

Data : Expenditure data were taken from the Expenditure and Food Survey; estimates of price elasticities of demand for food were taken from a report based on the National Food Survey 1988–2000. Estimates of effect on CVD and cancer mortality of changing fat, salt, fruit and vegetable intake were taken from previous meta-analyses.

Results : (i) Taxing principal sources of dietary saturated fat is unlikely to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer mortality. (ii) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods (defined by the WXYfm nutrient profiling model) could increase CVD and cancer deaths by 35–1300 yearly. (iii) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods and subsidising fruits and vegetables by 17.5% could avert up to 2900 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. (iv) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods and using all tax revenue to subsidize fruits and vegetables could avert up to 6400 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. Few obesity-related CVD deaths are averted by any of the regimens. All four regimens would be economically regressive and positive health effects will not necessarily be greater in lower-income groups where the need for dietary improvement is higher.

Conclusions : A targeted food tax combined with the appropriate subsidy on fruits and vegetables could reduce deaths from CVD and cancer.

Crime rates, male youth unemployment and real income in Australia: evidence from Granger causality tests

This article applies Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between seven different categories of property crime and violent crime against the person, male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings in Australia from 1964 to 2001 within a cointegration and vector error correction framework. It is found that fraud, homicide and motor vehicle theft are cointegrated with male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings. However, there is no evidence of a long-run relationship between either break and enter, robbery, serious assault or stealing with male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings.

Structure of unemployment in country Victoria

Investigates the extent of structural unemployment in country Victorian regions through analysing labour force statistics by region, industry, age, gender and occupation. It was found that female workers in country Victoria and the young are the most likely to be structurally unemployed. There are indications that the structural unemployment problem is getting worse despite the continued fall in the unemployment rate.

Coping with unemployment : impact on psychological health

Investigates alternative solutions to promoting psychological health during unemployment. Unemployed people who engage in meaningful leisure activity, who had a pro-active approach to coping, and utilised more social support networks, demonstrated better psychological adjustment. Suggests that such activities may contribute to re-employment.

Area-level unemployment and perceived job insecurity: evidence from a longitudinal survey conducted in the Australian working-age population

Research significance: Job insecurity, the subjective individual anticipation of involuntary job loss, negatively affects employees’ health and their engagement. Although the relationship between job insecurity and health has been extensively studied, job insecurity as an ‘exposure’ has received far less attention, with little known about the upstream determinants of job insecurity in particular. This research sought to identify the relationship between self-rated job insecurity and area-level unemployment using a longitudinal, nationally representative study of Australian households. Methods: Mixed-effect multi-level regression models were used to assess the relationship between area-based unemployment rates and self-reported job insecurity using data from a longitudinal, nationally representative survey running since 2001. Interaction terms were included to test the hypotheses that the relationship between area-level unemployment and job insecurity differed between occupational skill-level groups and by employment arrangement. Marginal effects were computed to visually depict differences in job insecurity across areas with different levels of unemployment. Results: Results indicated that areas with the lowest unemployment rates had significantly lower job insecurity (predicted value 2.74; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.71–2.78, P < 0.001) than areas with higher unemployment (predicted value 2.81; 95% CI 2.79–2.84, P < 0.001). There was a stronger relationship between area-level unemployment and job insecurity among precariously and fixed-term employed workers than permanent workers. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the independent influences of prevailing economic conditions, individual- and job-level factors on job insecurity. Persons working on a casual basis or on a fixed-term contract in areas with higher levels of unemployment are more susceptible to feelings of job insecurity than those working permanently.