Evaluating Unemployment Policies: What Do the Underlying Theories Tell Us?
IMF Working Papers, January 1, 1995
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Dennis J. Snower
- Published: January 1, 1995
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451842388.001
Summary
- The paper surveys unemployment policies for advanced market economies and evaluates them by examining the predictions of the underlying macroeconomic theories.
- Core idea: different unemployment policy prescriptions rest on different macroeconomic theories, and confidence in these prescriptions depends in part on the theories’ ability to predict salient stylized facts about unemployment behavior.
- The paper considers four types of policies: laissez faire, demand-management, supply-side, and structural policies.
- Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate.
Major findings and analytical focus
- Evaluation approach:
- Compare policy prescriptions by testing the predictive power of their underlying macroeconomic theories with respect to stylized facts about unemployment behavior.
- Policy taxonomy evaluated:
- laissez faire
- demand-management
- supply-side
- structural policies
Subjects and keywords (as listed)
- Subject: Employment, Labor, Labor costs, Unemployment, Wages
- Keywords: cost of capital, demand management, Employment, entered firm, equilibrium unemployment, Europe, insider-outsider theory, Labor costs, marginal product of labor, monitoring capability, nominal wage, profit sharing, take-home pay, Unemployment, unemployment insurance, wage contract, wage-price sluggishness, Wages, WP