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UNEMPLOYMENT AND OTHER MEASURES OF LABOR MARKET INEFFICIENCY: A COMPARISON OF U.K. AND U.S. LABOR MARKETS 1931–96
Author(s) -
BENDER KEITH A.,
NEUMANN REBECCA M.,
SKÅTUN JOHN DOUGLAS
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1093/ei/cbj039
Subject(s) - inefficiency , economics , unemployment , labour economics , microeconomics , macroeconomics
Although unemployment is often used as a measure of labor market inefficiency, economic theory indicates that market inefficiency is determined by both the gap between and the elasticities of supply and demand. Using time series data for the United States and United Kingdom, this article investigates how good the unemployment rate is as a measure of labor market inefficiency by calculating the deadweight loss associated with unemployment rates over time. Results show that the loss arising from unemployment is low across time and countries and that the unemployment rate is often a weak proxy for comparing labor market inefficiency. (JEL J6 )