Okun's Law : fit at fifty? / Laurence Ball, Daniel Leigh, Prakash Loungani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ball, Laurence M., author.

Leigh, Daniel, author.

Loungani, Prakash, author.

Series:

Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; Number W18668.

Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; Number W18668

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unemployment--Econometric models.

Unemployment.

Recessions--United States--History.

Recessions.

Macroeconomics--Econometric models.

Macroeconomics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (38 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013.

Summary:

This paper asks how well Okun's Law fits short-run unemployment movements in the United States since 1948 and in twenty advanced economies since 1980. We find that Okun's Law is a strong and stable relationship in most countries, one that did not change substantially during the Great Recession. Accounts of breakdowns in the Law, such as the emergence of "jobless recoveries," are flawed. We also find that the coefficient in the relationship - the effect of a one percent change in output on the unemployment rate - varies substantially across countries. This variation is partly explained by idiosyncratic features of national labor markets, but it is not related to differences in employment protection legislation.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.