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Although the measurement of segregation by gender or ethnic group in the labor force has long been of interest to both sociologists and economists, the sociology and economics literatures on this topic have evolved in different ways and remained largely separate. This has also been the case to some extent with research on the measurement of residential segregation. Although much of the segregation measurement literature is in sociology and geography, economists have contributed to this field as well, particularly in the development of measures of residential income segregation. Again, however, the economics literature has remained largely separate from that in geography and sociology.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes that took place in occupational segregation by gender, nationality, and age in Switzerland during the period 1970–2000.

Methodology – The paper starts by using correspondence analysis to detect changes in occupational segregation by gender and nationality. It then generalizes a decomposition procedure originally proposed by Karmel and McLachlan by combining their approach with what is now known as the Shapley decomposition. Such a generalization offers a clear breakdown of the variation over time in occupational segregation into a component measuring changes in net segregation and another one corresponding to changes in the margins, the latter itself including variations in the occupational structure and in the shares of the subpopulations (e.g., the genders) in the labor force.

Findings – Between 1970 and 2000 there was a slight increase in gross segregation by gender but a decrease in net segregation. The change in gross segregation is because the change in the margins more than compensated that in the internal structure. But even the change in the margins is the consequence of opposite forces since variations in the occupational structure would have per se led to a decrease in gross segregation.

Originality – The results of the empirical illustration based on Swiss data for 1970 and 2000 prove the usefulness of the approach. They stress in particular that in several instances, variations in gross and net segregation worked in opposite directions.

This paper presents a general survey of the Swiss economy. It emphasises the various factors that have been put forward to explain the very low unemployment rate recorded in Switzerland up to the beginning of the 1990s. It also analyses the factors which may be held responsible for the dramatic reversal of the Swiss labour market situation, by considering the modification in the employers’ and workers’ behaviour in Switzerland as well as the changes observed in the structure of the foreign labour force. It comes to the conclusion that the unemployment observed since 1991 is not simply a consequence of a deterioration in the functioning of the Swiss labour market compared with earlier periods, but rather a result of changes in immigration policies and also the reflection in the statistics of a truer picture of the labour market imbalance created by the restructuring of the economy.

Purpose – Evidence suggests that during the 1990s, many US metropolitan areas saw fundamental changes in the spatial distribution of household income. Following two decades of increasing economic segregation, many metropolitan neighborhoods saw declines in economic segregation, particularly those neighborhoods located within central cities and rural areas. This paper adapts the Spatial Ordering Index proposed by Dawkins (2007b) to explore these trends.

Methodology/Approach – Using US Census data, I calculate economic segregation indices for a sample of 205 US metropolitan areas in 1990 and 2000 and decompose changes in the indices into portions attributable to changes in the spatial distribution of households and portions capturing changes in the spatial distribution of aggregate income. I also examine regional variations in the decompositions.

Findings – The results suggest that changes in the spatial distribution of households and of income each influenced metropolitan economic segregation in different ways during the 1990s. Furthermore, the spatial dynamics of income segregation exhibited significant regional heterogeneity.

Originality/Value of paper – This paper presents a new approach to measuring the dynamics of economic segregation.

I want to thank Paul Jargowsky for his comment. I take it as a serious comment by a thoughtful scholar. I admit, however, that I cannot make sense of much of it.

Purpose – The Gini coefficient is a widely used measure of income inequality. It has also been used as a segregation measure, but only in the case of binary variables, for example race or gender. We develop a general version of the Gini Segregation Index (Gs) that can accommodate either continuous or binary variables, and discuss its relationship to existing measures.

Methodology – The Gini Index of Segregation is developed graphically and derived mathematically, illustrating the relationship between Gini's use in segregation and inequality applications.

Findings – Using the Public Use Microdata Sample for 25 U.S. metropolitan areas from the 2000 Census, we illustrate the calculation of the index and show that it is highly correlated with an existing measure of economic segregation.

Originality – This paper develops and illustrates a measure of segregation for continuous variables, a task for which there are few alternative measures.