OECD unemployment rates show long swings which dominate shorter business cycle components and these long swings show a range of common patterns. Using a panel of 21 OECD countries 1960-2002, we estimate the common factor that drives unemployment by the first principal component. This factor has a natural interpretation as a measure of global expected returns, which is given added plausibility by the fact that it is almost identical to the common factor driving investment shares. We estimate a model of unemployment adjustment, which allows for the influence both of the global factor and of labour market institutions and we examine whether the global factor can act as a proxy for the natural rate in a Phillips Curve. In 15 out of the 21 countries one cannot reject that the same natural rate, as a function of the global factor, appears in both the unemployment and inflation equations. In explaining both unemployment and inflation, the global factor is highly significant, suggesting that models which ignore the global dimension are likely to be deficient.
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Paper provided by Kiel Institute for the World Economy in its series Kiel Working Papers with number
1367.
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Joao Gomes & Jeremy Greenwood & Sergio Rebelo, 1997.
"Equilibrium Unemployment,"
NBER Working Papers
5922, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Joao Gomes & Jeremy Greenwood & Sergio T. Rebelo, 2001.
"Equilibrium Unemployment,"
RCER Working Papers
479, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
[Downloadable!]