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Unemployment hysteresis - macro evidence from 16 OECD countries

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Abstract

This paper investigates empirically the presence ofunemployment hysteresis in 16 OECD countries, applying aggregate quarterly unemployment rates covering the past 25 years. Alternative test procedures are discussed and employed, posing both stationarity and hysteresis as null hypotheses. The results suggest that hysteresis effects are highly significant in Australia and Canada, and to a lesser extent also significant in most European countries and in Japan. Only in the USA, the presence of unemployment hysteresis is strongly and consistently rejected.

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Without attributing to them opinions or errors in the paper, I wish to thank Steinar Strøm, Ragnar Nymoen, Arvid Raknerud, Anders Rygh Swensen, Jeremy Smith and two referees for helpful comments.

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Røed, K. Unemployment hysteresis - macro evidence from 16 OECD countries. Empirical Economics 21, 589–600 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01180703

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