Resumen

BARBOZA PEREZ, Maribel  y  HERNANDEZ, Luis. An Approach to the Labor Hysteresis Phenomenon in Venezuela (1965-2003). Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2009, vol.15, n.2, pp.257-271. ISSN 1315-9518.

This article explains the increasing rhythm in the unemployment rate observed in Venezuela from the 1980s to 2003. To achieve this, it proposes determining the labor hysteresis record, considering long-term, comprehensive data from the 1965-2003 period. First, a theoretical review was made that permits defining the operative concept of hysteresis, connected with the explicative proposal for endogenizing recurrent disturbances in the activity level of the unemployment rate trajectory, considering, for this purpose, the impact of the dynamic of petroleum income on the previous disturbance record of the Venezuelan economy. Secondly, the study proceeded to empirically verify the hysteresis hypothesis. For this, unit root tests were performed whose results contributed evidence in favor of the aforementioned record for the period under consideration. Derivations from both the Phillips-Perron unitary root test as well as the Dickey-Fuller test suggest that the historical series of unemployment variables follows a process of random progress due to which the trajectory of this variable presents a long memory. In other words, the climbing behavior of unemployment rate values, associable with recurrent disturbances in the GDP, does not dissipate during the period under consideration, showing rather a conduct without return for the values of the variable under consideration.

Palabras clave : Labor hysteresis; unemployment rate; economic disturbances; rigidity; institutional; endogenization of effects.