IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/28135.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A New Framework for Output-Unemployment Relationship: Okun’s Law Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Ismihan, Mustafa

Abstract

This paper provides a new and useful framework for developing various models to investigate the output-unemployment relationship. By using this framework, a simple but reasonable theoretical background to Okun’s law is derived. This theoretical background, in turn, facilitates the decomposition of Okun’s law coefficient into several quantifiable and interpretable components that incorporate main insights from Arthur Okun’s original analysis. The empirical decomposition exercise indicates that Okun’s law has an inherent tendency to vary substantially over time, especially, in response to the structural changes in legal, institutional and other related characteristics of labor and goods markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Ismihan, Mustafa, 2010. "A New Framework for Output-Unemployment Relationship: Okun’s Law Revisited," MPRA Paper 28135, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:28135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/28135/1/MPRA_paper_28135.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertola, Giuseppe, 1990. "Job security, employment and wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 851-879, June.
    2. Fay, Jon A & Medoff, James L, 1985. "Labor and Output over the Business Cycle: Some Direct Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 638-655, September.
    3. Blanchard, Olivier Jean & Quah, Danny, 1989. "The Dynamic Effects of Aggregate Demand and Supply Disturbances," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 655-673, September.
    4. Prachowny, Martin F J, 1993. "Okun's Law: Theoretical Foundations and Revised Estimates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 331-336, May.
    5. Morten O. Ravn & Harald Uhlig, 2002. "On adjusting the Hodrick-Prescott filter for the frequency of observations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 371-375.
    6. Thor Hultgren, 1960. "Appendices to "Changes in Labor Cost During Cycles in Production and Business"," NBER Chapters, in: Changes in Labor Cost during Cycles in Production and Business, pages 79-85, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. N/A, 2009. "On the Recession," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 24(3), pages 253-253, May.
    8. Thor Hultgren, 1960. "Changes in Labor Cost during Cycles in Production and Business," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hult60-1, July.
    9. Edward S. Knotek & Stephen J. Terry, 2009. "How will unemployment fare following the recession?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 94(Q III), pages 5-33.
    10. Adriana D. Kugler, 2004. "The Effect of Job Security Regulations on Labor Market Flexibility. Evidence from the Colombian Labor Market Reform," NBER Chapters, in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 183-228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Robert J. Gordon, 1973. "The Welfare Cost of Higher Unemployment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 4(1), pages 133-206.
    12. Walter Y. Oi, 1962. "Labor as a Quasi-Fixed Factor," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(6), pages 538-538.
    13. Kaufman, Roger T., 1988. "An international comparison of Okun's laws," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 182-203, June.
    14. Hamada, Koichi & Kurosaka, Yoshio, 1984. "The relationship between production and unemployment in Japan : Okun's law in comparative perspective," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 71-94, June.
    15. Weber, Christian E, 1995. "Cyclical Output, Cyclical Unemployment, and Okun's Coefficient: A New Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 433-445, Oct.-Dec..
    16. Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2005. "The consequences of labor market flexibility: Panel evidence based on survey data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 1225-1259, July.
    17. Paramsothy Silvapulle & Imad Moosa & Mervyn Silvapulle, 2004. "Asymmetry in Okun's law," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 353-374, May.
    18. Blinder, Alan S, 1997. "Is There a Core of Practical Macroeconomics That We Should All Believe?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 240-243, May.
    19. Mairesse, Jacques, 1984. "'The relationship between production and unemployment in Japan Okun's Law in comparative perspective' by K. Hamada and Y. Kurosaka," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 99-105, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. M. Sylvina Porras-Arena & Mauricio A. Suárez Cal, 2021. "What’s behind Okun’s law? A multiple equation approach to the Uruguayan labour market," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-30, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    2. alamro, Hassan & Al-dalaien, Qusay, 2014. "Modeling the relationship between GDP and unemployment for Okun’s law specific to Jordan," MPRA Paper 55302, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. João Sousa Andrade, 2009. "The PIGS, does the Group Exist? An empirical macroeconomic analysis based on the Okun Law," GEMF Working Papers 2009-11, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    2. Antal, Miklós, 2014. "Green goals and full employment: Are they compatible?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 276-286.
    3. Irina SyssoyevaMasson & João Sousa Andrade, 2017. "Are PIIGS so Different? An Empirical Analysis of Demand and Supply Shocks," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 64(2), pages 189-222, March.
    4. Ian H.K. Leow, 2004. "A Simple Dynamic Model of Big-push," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 218, Econometric Society.
    5. João Sousa Andrade, 2007. "Uma Aplicação da Lei de Okun em Portugal," GEMF Working Papers 2007-04, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    6. Shabir Mohsin Hashmi & Ali Gul Khushik & Muhammad Akram Gilal & Zhao Yongliang, 2021. "The Impact of GDP and Its Expenditure Components on Unemployment Within BRICS Countries: Evidence of Okun’s Law From Aggregate and Disaggregated Approaches," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    7. Thomas Obst, 2022. "Dynamic version of Okun’s law in the EU15 countries—The role of delays in the unemployment‐output nexus," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 69(2), pages 225-241, May.
    8. Durech, Richard & Minea, Alexandru & Mustea, Lavinia & Slusna, Lubica, 2014. "Regional evidence on Okun's Law in Czech Republic and Slovakia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 57-65.
    9. Pagliari Carmen & Mattoscio Nicola & Odoardi Iacopo & Tenerelli Fabiana, 2013. "Stability, Bifurcations And Chaos In Unemployment Non-Linear Dynamics," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 736-745, July.
    10. Mattoscio Nicola & Bucciarelli Edgardo & Odoardi Iacopo & Persico Tony Ernesto, 2012. "AN EXAMINATION OF OKUN'(tm)S LAW: EVIDENCE FROM EUROPEAN TARGET COUNTRIES," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 237-243, December.
    11. João Tovar Jalles, 2019. "On the Time‐Varying Relationship between Unemployment and Output: What shapes it?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(5), pages 605-630, November.
    12. Grant, Angelia L., 2018. "The Great Recession and Okun's law," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 291-300.
    13. Lee, Jim, 2000. "The Robustness of Okun's Law: Evidence from OECD Countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 331-356, April.
    14. Bernanke, Ben S & Parkinson, Martin L, 1991. "Procyclical Labor Productivity and Competing Theories of the Business Cycle: Some Evidence from Interwar U.S. Manufacturing Industries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 439-459, June.
    15. Moosa, Imad A., 1997. "A Cross-Country Comparison of Okun's Coefficient," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 335-356, June.
    16. Giovanni BUSETTA & Dario CORSO, 2008. "La legge di Okun: asimmetrie e differenziali territoriali in Italia," Working Papers 320, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    17. Raymond Hawkins, 2015. "Okun’s law and anelastic relaxation in economics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 10(1), pages 151-161, April.
    18. Döpke, Jörg, 2001. "The "Employment Intensity" of Growth in Europe," Kiel Working Papers 1021, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    19. J. Bradford De Long, 1990. "Interpreting Procyclical Productivity Movements: Evidence from a Cross-Nation Cross-Industry Panel," J. Bradford De Long's Working Papers _136, University of California at Berkeley, Economics Department.
    20. Costas KARFAKIS & Constantinos KATRAKILIDIS & Eftychia TSANANA, 2014. "Does output predict unemployment? A look at Okun's law in Greece," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(3), pages 421-433, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    output-unemployment relationship; Okun’s law;

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • C2 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:28135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.