We offer a decomposition for the variance of the current unemployment rate that not only measures the contributions of labor market flows but also of the approximation error embedded in other decompositions that use surrogates for the current rate. Using data for the United States and Brazil,...

We analyze the factors that determine human capital formation in the rural and urban sectors of Nepal and decompose the intersectoral difference into variables underlying supply and demand for human capital. In particular, we examine the role of access to primary and secondary schools as well as...

The weighted arithmetic mean is used in a wide variety of applications. An infinite number of possible decompositions of the weighted mean are available, and it is therefore an open question which of the possible decompositions should be applied. In this paper, we derive a decomposition of the...