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The Unemployment Rate and the Business Cycle in Britain: An Aggregate and Regional Analysis

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Author Info
David Jones
Neil Manning
Maxwell Stevenson
Abstract

JONES D., MANNING N. and STEVENSON M. (1994) The unemployment rate and the business cycle in Britain: an aggregate and regional analysis, Reg. Studies 28, 591--604. It has been suggested that if the business cycle is to be explained, then its behaviour should be related to a non-linear dynamic process, not unlike a limit cycle. The time irreversibility exhibited by post-war unemployment data is not untypical of a pattern generated by such a non-linear structure. Such a possibility could have important implications for economic policy. In certain cases, non-linearities make forecasting extremely hazardous if not impossible, as base-line measurement errors cause prediction errors to accumulate at an exponential rate. Equally worrying is that fundamentally mistaken policy can arise when linear specifications are used to approximate non-linear relationships. The present paper tests for non-linearities in the dynamics of regional unemployment in Britain. Appealing to the idea of a regime-switching process, we use the methodology of the self-exciting threshold autoregressive model (SETAR). Our ability to fit two-regime models to aggregate and regional unemployment series leads us to conclude that there is important, probably non-linear, behaviour in the dynamics of the unemployment rate. JONES D., MANNING N. et STEVENSON M. (1994) Le taux de chômage et le cycle économique en Grande-Bretagne: une analyse globale et régionale, Reg. Studies 28, 591--604. On a suggéré que, pour expliquer le cycle économique, il faut rapporter son comportement à un processus dynamique non-linéaire, un peu comme un cycle limite. L'irréversibilité temps démontré par les données relatives au chômage d'après-guerre est une caractéristique d'une distribution engendrée par une telle structure non-linéaire. Une telle possibilité pourrait avoir des conséquences importantes dans le domaine de la politique économique. Dans certains cas les effets non-linéaires rendent la prévision extrêmement aléatoire, voire impossible, parce que les erreurs de mesure partant de zéro incitent à un accroissement exponentielle des erreurs de prévision. Il est inquiétant aussi qu'une politique qui s'avère fondamentalement fausse puisse en résulter quand on utilise des précisions linéaires afin d'estimer des rapports non-linéaires. Le présent article recherche l'existence des effets non-linéaires dans la dynamique du chômage régional en Grande-Bretagne. Faisant appel à l'idée d'un processus qui permet un changement de régime, on utilise la méthodologie du modèle autorégressif SETAR. La capacité pour ajuster des modèles à deux régimes à des données en série globales et régionales sur le chômage amène à la conclusion suivante: il y a du comportement important, en toute probabilité non-linéaire, dans la dynamique du taux de chômage. JONES D., MANNING N. und STEVENSON M. (1994) Erwerbslosenrate und Konjunkturzyklus in Großbritannien. Eine Aggregats- und Regionalanalyse, Reg. Studies 28, 591--604. Es gibt Stimmen, die behaupten, eine Erklärung des Verhaltens des Konjunkturzyklus erfordere eine Inbezugsetzung zu einem nicht-linearen dynamischen Vorgang, der einem Grenzzyklus nicht unähnlich ist. Die durch Daten der Nachkriegsarbeitslosigkeit ausgewiesene unaufhaltsame Entwicklung der Zeit ist nicht untypisch für ein derartiges durch nicht-lineare Struktur erzeugtes Muster. Solch eine Möglichkeit könnte wichtige Implikationen für die Wirtschaftspolitik enthalten. In bestimmten Fällen macht Nichtlinearität Vorhersagen außerordentlich riskant, wenn nicht gar unmöglich, da Irrtümer bei der Messung der Grundlinie Vorhersagefehler exponential vermehren. Genauso besorgniserregend ist die Tatsache, daß sich grundsätzlich fehlerhafte Vorgehensweisen ergeben, wenn lineare Daten zur annäherungsweisen Berechnung nicht-linearer Beziehungen benutzt werden. Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht die Dynamik regionaler Erwerbslosigkeit in Großbritannien auf Nichtlinearität. Unter Verweis auf die Idee einer Umstellung von Regimen benutzen die Autoren die Methode des selbstanregenden autoregressiven Schwellen modells (SETAR). Die Fähigkeit, Doppelregimemodelle aggregaten und regionalen Erwerbslosigkeitsserien anzupassen, führt zu dem Schluß, daß es wichtiges, wahrscheinlich nicht-lineares Verhalten in der Dynamik der Arbeitslosenrate gibt.

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Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Regional Studies.

Volume (Year): 28 (1994)
Issue (Month): 6 (October)
Pages: 591-604
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Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:28:y:1994:i:6:p:591-604

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Related research
Keywords: Unemployment; Cycles; Regime-switching; Non-linearities;

References listed on IDEAS
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    Other versions:
  2. Richard Jackman & Christopher A. Pissarides & S Savouri, 1990. "Labour Market Policies and Unemployment in the OECD," CEP Discussion Papers dp0011, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
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  6. Gourieroux, Christian & Monfort, Alain, 1992. "Qualitative threshold ARCH models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1-2), pages 159-199. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Brock, William A. & Sayers, Chera L., 1988. "Is the business cycle characterized by deterministic chaos?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-90, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Blatt, John M, 1978. "On the Econometric Approach to Business-Cycle Analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 292-300, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Scheinkman, Jose A, 1990. "Nonlinearities in Economic Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(400), pages 33-48, Supplemen. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Perron, Pierre, 1988. "Trends and random walks in macroeconomic time series : Further evidence from a new approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 297-332. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Muellbauer, John & Portes, Richard, 1978. "Macroeconomic Models with Quantity Rationing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 88(352), pages 788-821, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. D. Jones & Maurice Peat & Max Stevenson, 1996. "Does the Process of Spatial Aggregation of U.K. Unemplyment Rate Series Serve to Induce or Remove Evidence of Asymmetry in the Business Cycle," Working Paper Series 67, School of Finance and Economics, University of Technology, Sydney. [Downloadable!]
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