Barnichon, RégisFigura, AndrewUniversitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament d'Economia i Empresa2017-07-262017-07-262013-10-01http://hdl.handle.net/10230/21220The US labor market witnessed two apparently unrelated secular movements in the last 30 years: a decline in unemployment between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, and a decline in participation since the early 2000s. Using CPS micro data and a stock- flow accounting framework, we show that a substantial, and hitherto unnoticed, factor behind both trends is a decline in the share of nonparticipants who are at the margin of participation. A lower share of marginal nonparticipants implies a lower unemployment rate, because marginal nonparticipants enter the labor force mostly through unemployment, while other nonparticipants enter the labor force mostly through employment.application/pdfengL'accés als continguts d'aquest document queda condicionat a l'acceptació de les condicions d'ús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commonsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/workingPapermarginal participantwant a jobstock-flow decomposition.Macroeconomics and International Economicsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess