past unemployment provides a cheap signal to employers regarding low labour productivity with adverse consequences for the individuals concerned the estimate of x may therefore partially reflect duration dependence in nonreceipt ie the fact that nonreceipt probabilities maybe tend to be greater the longer the spell of nonreceipt the factors influencing duration dependence in nonreceipt however need not be the same as the factors influencing duration dependence in receipt because unemployment leads to a substantial running down of financial assets and savings past unemployment may affect the chances of finding reemployment possibilities