Archived Series > World Economic and Financial Surveys
Abstract
These studies provide supporting material for the analysis and scenarios in the World Economic Outlook.
Abstract
These studies, prepared by the staff of the International Monetary Fund, comprise supporting material for the analyses and scenarios in the World Economic Outlook and provide a more detailed examination of the theory and evidence on some major issues affecting the global economy, commodity prices, and individual countries.
Abstract
This paper describes the functioning of labor markets and to eliminate other structural obstacles to noninflationary growth. The decline in the price level in the home country will involve a rise in the real money supply and, if output is sluggish, this will result in an excess supply of money. This, in turn, will lead to a drop in the domestic interest rate and, given foreign interest rates, to a temporary depreciation of the exchange rate. Structural measures could also affect investment and the current account by raising the rate of return on capital in the home country. If capital is internationally mobile, a higher rate of return on capital would result in a rise in investment and a temporary deterioration in the home country’s current account, which will be financed by an inflow of foreign capital. The quantitative impact of financial market deregulation on the economy is rather uncertain.
Abstract
This paper reviews recent analytical and empirical research on the determination of employment, to provide a framework for evaluating the merits of alternative policies to cope with unemployment. Particular emphasis is placed on the mechanisms of employment and wage determination described in recent studies. The lack of any systematic relationship between countries' long-run growth and employment performances reflects the fact that output per person employed (labor productivity) or, conversely, the labor intensity of production, has developed quite differently across countries. The main mechanism through which the rise in real wages has prevented greater employment gains in Europe over the past ten to fifteen years seems to have been a substitution of capital for labor which has lowered the labor intensity of production significantly more than in the United States. There are a number of important caveats with respect to the apparent relationship between differences in employment and labor cost developments across countries.