IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crcspp/v12y1980ip7-33.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor supply and aggregate fluctuations

Author

Listed:
  • Hall, Robert E.

Abstract

Issues of labor supply are at the heart of macroeconomic explanations of the large cyclical fluctuations of output observed in modern economies. This paper starts with a serious empirical examination of the view that the labor market is always in balance-that every observed combination of employment and compensation is a point of intersection of the relevant supply and demand curves. I will call this the "intertemporal substitution" model of fluctuations. According to this model, workers are willing to shift their hours of work from one year to another in response to modest shifts in relative wages. The paper goes on to point out a strong implication of the pure inter- temporal substitution model, namely, the irrelevance of changes in the money supply for the labor supply function. A model where markets clear instantly ought to obey full monetary neutrality. The data refute this implication absolutely unambiguously. The money stock unambiguously shifts the labor supply function. The pure substitution model seems untenable in the light of this evidence. The paper then turns to explanations of the nonneutrality of money in the short run. According to the most carefully worked out line of thought, monetary shocks cause workers to make inappropriate intertemporal shifts in labor supply, because they lack complete information about the source of aggregate shocks and are forced to respond in the same way to real and nominal disturbances. Finally, the paper turns to the view that, in the short run, labor supply is largely irrelevant to the determination of aggregate employment.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Hall, Robert E., 1980. "Labor supply and aggregate fluctuations," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 7-33, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crcspp:v:12:y:1980:i::p:7-33
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167-2231(80)90019-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gray, Jo Anna, 1976. "Wage indexation: A macroeconomic approach," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 221-235, April.
    2. Barro, Robert J. & Fischer, Stanley, 1976. "Recent developments in monetary theory," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 133-167, April.
    3. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1975. "An Equilibrium Model of the Business Cycle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(6), pages 1113-1144, December.
    4. Lucas, Robert E, Jr & Rapping, Leonard A, 1969. "Real Wages, Employment, and Inflation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(5), pages 721-754, Sept./Oct.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Plassard, Romain, 2021. "Barro, Grossman, and the domination of equilibrium macroeconomics," MPRA Paper 107201, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Bennet T. McCallum, 1984. "A Linearized Version of Lucas's Neutrality Model," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 17(1), pages 138-145, February.
    3. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2009. "Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12777.
    4. Mandeya Shelton M.T & Ho Sin-Yu, 2022. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty and the Economic Growth Nexus: A Review of the Literature," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 22(1), pages 172-190, June.
    5. Galbács Peter, 2021. "What did it take for Lucas to set up ‘useful’ analogue systems in monetary business cycle theory?," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(3), pages 61-82, September.
    6. Michener, Ron, 1998. "Inflation, Expectations, and Output: Lucas's Islands Revisited," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 767-783, October.
    7. Jorge Fernández-Baca, 1996. "Robert Lucas, Premio Nobel de Economía 1995. Cómo un historiador se convirtió en el economista más importante del siglo XX," Apuntes. Revista de ciencias sociales, Fondo Editorial, Universidad del Pacífico, vol. 23(38), pages 11-23.
    8. Obstfeld, Maurice & Stockman, Alan C., 1985. "Exchange-rate dynamics," Handbook of International Economics, in: R. W. Jones & P. B. Kenen (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 18, pages 917-977, Elsevier.
    9. Fangxiong Gong, 1995. "Regime-switching monetary policy and real business cycle fluctuations," Research Paper 9528, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    10. Chollete, Loran & Ning, Cathy, 2009. "The Dependence Structure of Macroeconomic Variables in the US," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2009/31, University of Stavanger.
    11. Kim B. Clark & Lawrence H. Summers, 1982. "Labour Force Participation: Timing and Persistence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(5), pages 825-844.
    12. Romain Plassard, 2019. "From Disequilibrium to Equilibrium Macroeconomics: Barro and Grossman's Trade-off between Rigor and Realism," GREDEG Working Papers 2019-17, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    13. Läufer, Nikolaus K. A., 1976. "Unsicherheit, Friedmansche Regel und optimale Wirtschaftspolitik," Discussion Papers, Series I 91, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1001-1035 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Broadbent, Ben & Barro, Robert J., 1997. "Central bank preferences and macroeconomic equilibrium," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 17-43, June.
    16. John B. Taylor, 1983. "Rational Expectations Models in Macroeconomics," NBER Working Papers 1224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Zijp, R. van, 1990. "New classical monetary business cycle theory," Serie Research Memoranda 0058, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    18. James A. Hanson, 1978. "The short-run relation between growth and inflation in Latin America: a quasi rational or consistent expectations approach," International Finance Discussion Papers 118, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Fischer, Stanley, 1977. "Wage indexation and macroeconomics stability," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 107-147, January.
    20. Frenkel, Jacob A. & Aizenman, Joshua, 1982. "Aspects of the optimal management of exchange rates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3-4), pages 231-256, November.
    21. Cho, Jang-Ok & Phaneuf, Louis, 1995. "Monnaie et cycles," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 71(2), pages 163-192, juin.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:crcspp:v:12:y:1980:i::p:7-33. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jme .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.