“Structural Change and Structural Unemployment in Poland”

This paper looks at regional unemployment inequality using individual-level data. We find that higher unemployment regions are those with higher inflow rates to unemployment rather than higher durations of unemployment. This indicates that high unemployment is related to high rates of destruction of job-worker matches in Poland. Econometric analysis of the probability of flowing into unemployment from a job reinforces this impression, showing how middle-aged workers in particular and also those in manufacturing are much more likely to enter unemployment if they live in high unemployment counties. These results are evidence against theories of regional unemployment, which work through variations in the rate of job-finding.