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Most empirical work on the U.S. Phillips curve has had a strong tendency to impose global linearity on the data. The basic objective of this paper is to reconsider the issue of nonlinearity and to underscore its importance for policymaking. After briefly reviewing the history of the Phillips curve and the basis for convexity, we derive it explicitly using standard models of wage and price determination. We provide some empirical estimates of Phillips curves and Phillips lines for the United States and use some illustrative simulations to contrast the policy implications of the two models.

Inflation --- Labor --- Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search --- Price Level --- Deflation --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Labour --- income economics --- Macroeconomics --- Unemployment rate --- Unemployment --- Disinflation --- Wages --- Prices --- United States --- Income economics

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This paper examines how the on-the-job search of workers in the state sector who are seeking jobs in the private sector affects private sector employment, the unemployment level, and the unemployment duration in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. The main finding is that on-the-job searching can account for the coexistence of a quickly growing private sector and a high unemployment level of long duration. The paper also addresses the issue of the optimal (output maximizing) rate of state sector closure and finds that the rate is slower when workers are simultaneously job hunting than when they are not.

Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search --- Comparative Economic Systems: General --- Public Enterprises --- Public-Private Enterprises --- Employment --- Unemployment --- Wages --- Intergenerational Income Distribution --- Aggregate Human Capital --- Aggregate Labor Productivity --- Labor Economics: General --- Civil service & public sector --- Labour --- income economics --- Public sector --- Unemployment rate --- Economic sectors --- Finance, Public --- Economic theory --- Labor economics --- Czech Republic --- Income economics

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This Selected Issues paper analyzes labor market asymmetries and macroeconomic adjustment in Germany. Empirical work reported shows that in Germany, negative demand shocks increase the unemployment rate by more than the decrease in the unemployment rate caused by a comparable-sized positive demand shock. The contribution of labor costs to explaining the high level of unemployment, particularly since unification, is studied. Empirical estimates are obtained for the wage gap—the deviation of actual labor costs from warranted labor costs based on estimated production functions assuming competitive factor markets and full employment.

Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Personal Finance -Taxation --- Public Finance --- Taxation --- Corporate Taxation --- Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- Social Security and Public Pensions --- Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits --- Private Pensions --- Wage Level and Structure --- Wage Differentials --- Labour --- income economics --- Pensions --- Public finance & taxation --- Corporate & business tax --- Unemployment rate --- Pension spending --- Wage gap --- Personal income tax --- Expenditure --- Unemployment --- Wages --- Income tax --- Income --- Germany --- Income economics

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This paper argues that an important group of labor market policies are complementary in the sense that the effect of each policy is greater when implemented in conjunction with the other policies than in isolation. This may explain why the diverse, piecemeal labor market reforms in many European countries in recent years have had so little success in reducing unemployment. What is required instead is deeper labor market reforms across a broader range of complementary policies and institutions. To be politically feasible, these reforms must be combined with measures to address distributional issues.

Capacity --- Capital and Total Factor Productivity --- Cost --- Crime & criminology --- Criminology --- Demand and Supply of Labor: General --- Economic theory --- Income economics --- Industrial productivity --- International economics --- Labor economics --- Labor Economics: General --- Labor market --- Labor markets --- Labor --- Labour --- Macroeconomics --- Macroeconomics: Production --- Production and Operations Management --- Production growth --- Production --- Productivity --- Public finance & taxation --- Public Finance --- Total factor productivity --- Unemployment rate --- Unemployment --- Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search --- United States