Structural Depression -- Modern Equilibrium Theory of Unemployment, Interest Rates, and Assets

Author: (American) Phelps, written by Fei Jianping, translated by Ye Hu
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: Unlike the explanations of the business cycle by the Keynesian school, the monetarist school, and the real business cycle school, Professor E.S. Phelps proposes a highly distinct theory in this book to explain the long-term unemployment problem that has plagued the economies of the United States and Europe since the 1970s. The author constructs models of employee replacement and training in closed and open economies, as well as a two-sector fixed investment model, and examines within a framework of intertemporal general equilibrium how real demand and supply shocks—such as capital stock, oil, the level and rate of technological progress, tax structures, tariffs, overseas real interest rates, and real exchange rates—affect the equilibrium employment path. Using time-series data from post-war countries for econometric research, the findings tend to support the structuralist theory of the natural rate of unemployment proposed in this book. The book presents a completely different approach from the new neoclassical and mainstream Keynesian paradigms in clear and fluent language, constructing a comprehensive macroeconomic theoretical system. It is suitable for scholars studying cutting-edge macroeconomic issues and economists conducting macroeconomic analysis for reference.