The Labor Market and Business Cycle Theories (Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems)

Interest in business cycles has had its'ups and downs'. After a period of almost steady state growth and of economic tranquility, when the business cycle seemed to be obsolete, the turbulence of the 70s and 80s has contributedto a renewed interest in the topic. Important analytical and methodological innovations have also favored the present abundance of contributions. Four innovations are of particular importance: i. microfoundations ii. nonlinearities iii. stochastic variables iv. real aspects. Both Classical macroeconomics and new-Keynesian approaches seem to share these characteristics, which apply both to endogenous and exogenous explanations of the cycle. The distance separating the newer literature from its forebears seems vast. Previously, cycle theory was characterized by a macro approach and utilized nonlinearities either through piecewise'linear models or with the aid of Classical theorems in the field of dynamic systems. To consider and to compare the old and the new literature on business cycles is one of the goals of this book. To narrow the distance separating them is another goal of this research. We do not try to bridge it, but rather to revisit the former tradition with new tools. Finally, a particular emphasis is put on the'ceilings and floors'type of literature. One of us has written a D. Phil. thesis with Sir John Hicks, and both have worked with H. P. Minsky. Hicks, along with Goodwin, introdu. ced the concept of ceilings and floors into business cycle analysis, and Minsky made important contributions to the area. This book is primarily a critical survey of small-case, theoretical macro models that attempts to analyze the cyclical behavior of modern economies. The authors emphasize the role of the labor market, which is treated very differently in such models. They show how the development of business cycle models owes almost as much to the development of analytic methods as to the economic events that make analysis necessary; this leads to the examination of the changing nature of the mathematical tools that have been used by business cycle theorists. They give examples of how these newer tools can deal with nonlinear models that are capable of generating a richer variety of dynamic outcomes than was possible with linear models. The treatment of these topics does not require a strong background in mathematics and the authors' goal is to call attention to the new methods and provide examples of the results that are possible with them rather than to teach those methods in detail. In addition to the survey material, they describe a regime switching model of their own that is capable of generating cyclical behavior. This model is greatly influenced by its labor market component, in which a nonlinearity is introduced through the device of switching between linear behavioral equations. The model is analyzed analytically and with simulation experiments Front Matter....Pages N2-X Introduction....Pages 1-10 The Labor Market, Business Cycles, and Economic Instability....Pages 11-26 The Analytical Role of the Labor Market in Long-and Short-Run Models....Pages 27-45 Nonlinear Deterministic Labor Market Theories of Business Cycles....Pages 46-64 The Mathematics of Nonlinearity....Pages 65-83 The Labor Market and Stochastic Theories of Business Cycles....Pages 84-105 Wage-Price Spirals....Pages 106-119 A Regime Switching Model....Pages 120-143 Some Critical Aspects....Pages 144-159 Concluding Remarks....Pages 160-167 Back Matter....Pages 168-187