Written by leading experts in the field, this book provides a broad survey of unemployment. Explaining what has happened to employment levels in the industrialized countries in the 1970s and 1980s, the authors discuss why unemployment is so high and why it has fluctuated so wildly, how unemployment affects inflation, and whether full employment can ever be combined with price stability. For each issue it develops a relevant theory, followed by extensive empirical analysis, drawing on material from both Europe and America.

Overview; The Microfoundations: Wage Bargaining and Unions; Efficiency Wages; Wage Behaviour: The Evidence; Job Search: The Duration of Unemployment; Mismatch: The Structure of Unemployment; The Pricing and Employment Behaviour of Firms; The Macroeconomic Outcome: The Macroeconomics of Unemployment; Explaining Post-War Unemployment in OECD Countries; Policy Implications: Policies to Cut Unemployment