Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market

Abstract

This book aims to provide a basis for better unemployment policy: showing how the lessons learned from experience and theory can be applied to greatly reduce the waste and misery of high unemployment. The book surveys the main aspects of the unemployment problem. It integrates macroeconomics with a detailed micro-analysis of the labour market. It uses a model to explain the puzzling post-war history of OECD unemployment and shows how unemployment and inflation are affected by systems of wage bargaining and unemployment insurance. For each issue the chapters develop a relevant theory, followed by extensive empirical analysis.