Macro-determinants of UK regional unemployment and the role of employment flexibility

Monastiriotis, Vassilis (2006): Macro-determinants of UK regional unemployment and the role of employment flexibility. Published in: European Institute Working Paper Series No. No 2006-01 (March 2006): pp. 1-40.

Abstract

This paper explores the macroeconomic determinants of UK regional unemployment and their relation to the influences on unemployment exerted by the levels and types of employment flexibility in the country. Theoretically the paper draws on Keynesian and monetarist explanations of unemployment and elaborates on how the two main theoretical approaches perceive the role of price stability, accumulation, macroeconomic shocks and labour market rigidities for unemployment. Empirically, the analysis relies on a novel set of flexibility indicators and examines their impact on regional unemployment, unemployment persistence, and adjustment to economic shocks. The results provide useful insights into the explored relationships and highlight the areas and conditions under which employment flexibility helps achieve favourable employment outcomes. The implications of the findings are discussed in the concluding section.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Employment flexibility; regional unemployment; persistence; NAIRU and Keynesian explanations of unemployment
• Subjects: R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R3 - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location > R38 - Government Policy; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J64 - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E24 - Employment ; Unemployment ; Wages ; Intergenerational Income Distribution ; Aggregate Human Capital ; Aggregate Labor Productivity; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E12 - Keynes ; Keynesian ; Post-Keynesian

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