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Unemployment: Theoretical Explanations

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Globalization and Unemployment

Abstract

The European unemployment problem today is still at least as relevant as it was in the late eighties. Has the persistence and even aggravation of the phenomenon led to the creation of substantial new theoretical concepts? Have we a better understanding of stubborn mass unemployment compared to the state-of-the-art theories a dozen years ago? Do we know more about the presumably endogenous causes of shifts in the equilibrium unemployment rate? Can we sufficiently explain the striking differences in the labor market performance of different countries? Is there a consensus about the major causes of unemployment and are there generally accepted policy measures for fighting it? More than ten years after the prophecy of Dornbusch and Fischer it seems worthwhile to scrutinize the major theoretical developments which have taken place since then.

The European unemployment problem is becoming so severe and prolonged that the influence of that event will almost certainly change theories of unemployment in the next few years.

Dornbusch, Fischer (1987)

We thank Jürgen Antony, Oliver Büsse, Susanne Koch, Karen Thompson and the participants of the workshop “Globalization and Unemployment” at Hagen for helpful comments.

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  1. University of Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Thomas Beißinger & Joachim Möller

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  1. University of Hagen, Feithstrasse 140, 58084, Hagen, Germany

    Helmut Wagner (Chair of Macroeconomics) (Chair of Macroeconomics)

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Beißinger, T., Möller, J. (2000). Unemployment: Theoretical Explanations. In: Wagner, H. (eds) Globalization and Unemployment. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04082-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04082-9_5

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