Mark Kurt, an assistant professor of economics, presented a new working paper, "Discouraging Workers: Estimating the Impact of Macroeconomic Shocks on Search Intensity of the Unemployed" at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
The paper, co-authored with professor Steve DeLoach, decomposes the effects of fluctuating housing prices, stock market prices, and mass layoffs on unemployed individual’s choice of how intensively to search for employment. Results indicate housing and stock market price decreases encourage workers to seek employment. While increasing layoffs discourages workers.