A közgazdaságtudományi közélet megújulásáért

Jonathan Cohen, Andrew C. Johnston, and Attila Lindner

MKE-WP-38964

We use a panel of survey responses linked to administrative data in Germany to measure the depreciation of general skills while workers are unemployed. Both the reemployment hazard rate and reemployment earnings steadily fall with unemployment duration, and indicators of depression and loneliness rise substantially. Despite this, we find no decline in a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills while workers remain unemployed. We find the same pattern in a panel of American workers. The results imply that skill depreciation in general human capital is unlikely to be a major explanation for duration dependence.