Why has unemployment fallen in some countries and not in others? This classic book is now re-issued with an updated introduction, which shows how well the analysis explains recent developments. The book is both a textbook and an original monograph in which the authors set out their analytic framework which has now become standard in some countries. The book both explains unemployment and shows how it can be reduced. It contains a long overview chapter which is accessible to any non-specialist with an elementary knowledge of economics.

• Introduction to New Edition


• Preface to First Edition


• 1: Overview


• The Microfoundations


• 2: Wage-Bargaining and Unions


• 3: Efficiency Wages


• 4: Wage Behaviour: the Evidence


• 5: Job Search: the Duration of Unemployment


• 6: Mismatch: the Structure of Unemployment


• 7: The Pricing and Employment Behaviour of Firms


• The Macroeconomic Outcome


• 8: The Macroeconomics of Unemployment


• 9: Explaining Post-war Unemployment in OECD Countries


• Policy Implications


• 10: Policies to Cut Unemployment


• Annexes


• Discussion Questions


• References

Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
Stephen Nickell is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.
Richard Jackman is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.