Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:59:59.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Causes of British Unemployment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

R. Layard
Affiliation:
Centre for Labour Economics at the London School of Economics
S. Nickell
Affiliation:
Institute of Economics and Statistics at the University of Oxford

Extract

Unemployment in Britain has risen from around 2 per cent in the late 1950s and early 1960s to around 3 per cent today. What accounts for this astonishing increase?

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are deeply grateful to Sushil Wadhwani and, above all, Paul Kong for help in this research. Many colleagues have provided valuable comments, especially M. Beenstock, A. Britton, D. Grubb, R. Jackman, P. Minford, A. Oswald, D. Savage, J. Symons and members of the Treasury Academic Panel. We are grateful for financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust and HM Treasury.

References

Carsberg, B. and Hope, A. (1976), Business Investment Decisions under Inflation: Theory and Practice, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.Google Scholar
Domberger, S. (1979), ‘Price Adjustment and Market Structure’, Economic Journal, March.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, D., Jackman, R. and Layard, R. (1982), ‘Causes of the Current Stagflation’, Review of Economic Studies, XLIX, 707–30.Google Scholar
Henry, B. and Wren-Lewis, S. (1984), ‘The aggregate labour market in the U.K.: some experiments with rational expectations models’ in P. Malgrange and P. Muet, eds, Contemporary Macroeconomic Modelling, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jackman, R., Layard, R. and Pissarides, C. (1984), ‘On Vacancies’, London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics, Discussion Paper no. 165 (revised) August.Google Scholar
Johnson, G. and Layard, R. (1984), ‘The Natural Rate of Unemployment: Explanation and Policy’, forthcoming in O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard (eds), Handbook of Labor Economics, North-Holland.Google Scholar
Knoester, A. (1983), ‘Stagnation and the Inverted Haavelmo Effect, Some International Evidence’, De Economist, 131,4, pp. 548–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancaster, T. (1979), ‘Econometric Methods for the Duration of Unemployment’, Econometrica, 47, pp. 939–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layard, R. (1983), More Jobs Less Inflation, Grant Mclntyre, London.Google Scholar
Layard, R.Metcalf, D. and Nickell, S. (1978), ‘The Effects of Collective Bargaining on Relative Wages’, in A. Shorrocks and W. Krelle (eds). The Economics of Income Distribution, 1978 and British Journal of Industrial Relations, November.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malinvaud, E. (1982), ‘Wages and Unemployment’, Economic Journal, 92, p. 365, March.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meade, J.E. (1984), ‘Full employment, new technologies and the distribution of income’, T. H. Marshall Lecture, University of Southampton, mimeo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minford, P. (1983), Unemployment: Cause and Cure, Martin Robertson, Oxford.Google Scholar
Minford, P. (1983a), ‘The Labour Market in an Open Economy’, Oxford Economic Papers, November.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Modigliani, F. and Cohn, R.A.(1979),‘Inflation, Rational Valuation and the Market’, Financial Analysts Journal, vol. 35, pp. 2444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narendranathan, W., Nickell, S. and Stem, J. (1984), ‘Unemployment Benefits Revisited’, London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics, Discussion Paper no. 153 (Revised), forthcoming, Economic Journal.Google Scholar
Nickell, S.J. (1979), ‘The Effect of Unemployment and Related Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment’, Economic Journal, 89, pp. 3449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickell, S.J. (1979a), ‘Unemployment and the Structure of Labour Costs’, Carnegie-Rochester Public Policy Conference no. 11, (Journal of Monetary Economics, Supplement).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickell, S.J. (1982), ‘The Determinants of Equilibrium Unemployment in Britain’, Economic Journal, 92, pp. 555–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pencavel, J.H., (1972), ‘Wages, Specific Training, and Labor Turnover in U.S. Manufacturing Industries’, International Economic Review, vol. 13, 1, February.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pudney, S. (1984), ‘Earnings Equations and Incomes Policy’, London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics, Unemployment Seminar Paper US/89.Google Scholar
Sargan, J.D. (1964), ‘Wages and prices in the U.K.’, in P. E. Hart, G. Mills and J. K. Whittaker (eds), Econometric Analysis for National Economic Planning, Macmillan, New York, 1964.Google Scholar
Shapiro, C. and Stiglitz, J. (1984), ‘Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device’, American Economic Review.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J.E. (1984), ‘Theories of Wage Rigidity’, paper presented at the conference on KeynesEconomic Legacy, Delaware, January 1213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadhwani, S. (1984a), ‘The Effects of Aggregate Demand, Inflation, Real Wages and Uncertainty on Manufacturing Employment’, London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics, Working Paper no. 630.Google Scholar
Wadhwani, S. (1984b), ‘Inflation, Bankruptcy, Default Premia and the Stock Market’, London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics, Discussion Paper no. 194.Google Scholar