An explanatory model of labour market and income distribution

Abstract

This study has comprised an elaborate treatment of some specific elements of regional welfare. In the descriptive phase these elements have been considered in an isolated way (Chapters 1–7). In Chapter 8 we succeeded in providing a first link between some of the welfare elements considered. We might follow a similar approach to that in Chapter 8 for the indicators of the regional income distributions and try to estimate some kind of impact relation for regional unemployment rates by means of cross-sectional data1. However, in the description of regional unemployment in Chapter 7 we concluded that the type of rough indicator of regional unemployment used there is in fact unsatisfactory as an element of a welfare profile. We should like to have more detailed information on the discrepancies on the regional labour market. So no attempt will be made to present an estimated relation as referred to above. Instead, it is more worthwhile to consider how aspects of the labour market and personal income distribution can be integrated in a more comprehensive model. Such a model could provide a useful tool to evaluate the effects of alternative types of public policies on regional welfare elements.