Skip to main content
Log in

Classical and Keynesian unemployment in Austria

  • Published:
Empirica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The labor market in a macroeconometric model of Austria is used to determine the natural unemployment rate, full-employment (F.E.) output, and the F.E. real wage for 1966–92. Gaps between actual and F.E. variables are examined analytically and historically. Observed unemployment is decomposed into natural, hidden, classical, and Keynesian components. Classical unemployment is associated with the real wage gap, while Keynesian unemployment depends on the output gap. A rise in the natural rate is found to account for almost all of the increase in unemployment between 1966–74 and 1975–81, but an increase in Keynesian unemployment is the major factor in the rise of unemployment between 1975–81 and 1982–92. A fiscal shock to the complete model is found to increase real GDP for a year or two, reducing Keynesian unemployment without an appreciable rise in classical unemployment; the wage gap is eventually increased, however, producing a modest rise in classical unemployment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Barro, Robert J. and Herschel I. Grossman (1971) ‘A General Disequilibrium Model of Income and Employment,’American Economic Review 61, 82–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benassy, Jean-Pascal (1975) ‘Neo-Keynesian Disequilibrium Theory in a Monetary Economy,’Review of Economic Studies,42, 503–523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benassy, Jean-Pascal (1982)The Economics of Disequilibrium. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clower, Robert W. (1965) ‘The Keynesian Counterrevolution: A Theoretical Appraisal,’ in F.H. Hahn and F.P.R. Brechling, eds,The Theory of Interest Rates. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coen, Robert M. and Bert G. Hickman (1987) ‘Keynesian and Classical Unemployment in Four Countries,’Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1:123–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coen, Robert M. and Bert G. Hickman (1988) ‘Is European Unemployment Classical or Keynesian?,’American Economic Review,78, 188–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coen, Robert M. and Bert G. Hickman (1994) ‘U.K. Unemployment Revisited,’ in S. Holly, ed,Money, Inflation, and Unemployment: Essays in Honour of James Ball. Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 62–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drèze, Jacques H. and Charles R. Bean (1990)Europe's Unemployment Problem. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickman, Bert G. (1987) ‘Real Wages, Aggregate Demand, and Unemployment,’European Economic Review 31, 1531–1560.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickman, Bert G. and Robert M. Coen (1976)An Annual Growth Model of the U.S. Economy. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hymans, Saul H. (1972) ‘Prices and Price Behavior in Three U.S. Econometric Models’,The Econometrics of Price Determination, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System and Social Science Research Council, 309–324.

  • Lambert, Jean-Paul (1988)Disequilibrium Macroeconomic Models. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layard, Richard, Stephen Nickell, and Richard Jackman (1991)Unemployment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malinvaud, Edmond (1977)The Theory of Unemployment Reconsidered. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, William D. (1972) ‘Recent Developments in Price Dynamics’,The Econometrics of Price Determination, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System and Social Science Research Council, 16–49.

  • Patinkin, Don (1956)Money, Interest and Prices, 2nd ed. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pichelmann, Karl (1990) ‘Unemployment Dynamics, Wage Flexibility, and the NAIRU in Austria’,Empirica,17, 171–186.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sneessens, H. (1981)Theory and Estimation of Macroeconomic Rationing Models. Berlin: Springer-Verlag

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachter, M.L. (1976) ‘The Changing Cyclical Responsiveness of Wage Inflation’,Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1:115–159.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coen, R.M., Hickman, B.G. Classical and Keynesian unemployment in Austria. Empirica 22, 47–70 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01388380

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01388380

Key words

JEL Codes

Navigation