The NAIRU in Theory and Practice / Laurence Ball, N. Gregory Mankiw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ball, Laurence.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Mankiw, N. Gregory.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8940.

NBER working paper series no. w8940

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2002.

Summary:

This paper discusses the NAIRU -- the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. It first considers the role of the NAIRU concept in business cycle theory, arguing that this concept is implicit in any model in which monetary policy influences both inflation and unemployment. The exact value of the NAIRU is hard to measure, however, in part because it changes over time. The paper then discusses why the NAIRU changes and, in particular, why it fell in the United States during the 1990s. The most promising hypothesis is that the decline in the NAIRU is attributable to the acceleration in productivity growth.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2002.