ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the determinants of search duration while unemployed, as measured by the time spent looking for work. It discusses the methodology was ordinary least squares applied to a semi-log equation on the number of weeks looking for work. The general approach in economics has increasingly relied upon the use of hazard function models to minimize the problems with the data. Most of the studies using hazard functions to estimate duration are interested in the duration variable itself, such as in estimating the effect of unemployment insurance benefits on duration. The average of occupational wages acts as expected for native-born men—a dollar increase in the average occupational wage for native-born men reduces the duration of incomplete spells of unemployment by about 1.7% on average. The effect of average occupational wages is to reduce unemployment duration for whites and blacks, while the variance of occupational wages reduces duration for all except other minorities.
