The market for labor in interwar Britain

Michael Beenstock*, Peter Warburton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

In a previous paper we showed that both the supply and the demand for labor in interwar Britain were wage elastic. In the present paper we extend these efforts by endogenizing wage behavior so that the model provides an account of employment, unemployment, participation, and real wages on an integrated basis. We explain wage behavior in terms of an instantaneously augmented expected Phillips curve in which the natural rate of unemployment depends, inter alia, on unemployment benefit. The paper concludes with a series of counterfactual simulations to expose the factors responsible for the rise and decline of unemployment during the period.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)287-308
Number of pages22
JournalExplorations in Economic History
Volume28
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1991

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