Research Paper

Education and the natural rate of unemployment

By Marco Francesconi, J. Michael Orszag, Edmund S. Phelps and Gylfi Zoega

Publication details

Publication date
Series or book
Working Papers of the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change
Series or chapter number
99-02
Publisher
ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change: University of Essex

Abstract

We show how changes in the educational composition of the labour force affect both the level and the behaviour over time of aggregate unemployment series. We also demonstrate that if it had not been for such changes, the U.S. unemployment series would look 'European' since the within-group unemployment series all have that same appearance. We derive a natural-rate model of unemployment for two education groups, providing microfoundations for inter-group differences in wages and unemployment, and evaluate its plausibility in light of microeconomic evidence.

Notes

working paper

Topics