RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Unemployment Duration JF Journal of Human Resources JO J Hum Resour FD University of Wisconsin Press SP 156 OP 191 DO 10.3368/jhr.XXXVIII.1.156 VO XXXVIII IS 1 A1 John T. Addison A1 Pedro Portugal YR 2003 UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXVIII/1/156.abstract AB This paper examines the determinants of unemployment duration in a competing risks framework with two destination states: inactivity and employment. The innovation is the recognition of defective risks. A polynomial hazard function is used to differentiate between two possible sources of infinite durations. The first is produced by a random process of unlucky draws, the second by workers rejecting a destination state. The evidence favors the mover-stayer model over the search model. Refinement of the former approach, using a more flexible baseline hazard function, produces a robust and more convincing explanation for positive and zero transition rates out of unemployment.