IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v18y2011i1p125-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The remarkable transformation of the UV curve in economic theory

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Rodenburg

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the impact the Unemployment-Vacancy (UV) curve (or Beveridge curve) had on economic theory and to provide an account of the subsequent radical changes in its place and role over the decades since its first appearance in 1958. The paper traces the historical development of the UV curve and argues that the role of the UV curve has changed from that of a measuring device, to a graphical representation of full employment, to an axiom necessary for matching models of unemployment to a diagnostic tool. This changing role is best understood in the light of the paradigmatic change from Keynesianism to neoclassical search theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Rodenburg, 2011. "The remarkable transformation of the UV curve in economic theory," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 125-153.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:125-153
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2011.546080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672567.2011.546080
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672567.2011.546080?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pissarides, C A, 1979. "Job Matchings with State Employment Agencies and Random Search," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 89(356), pages 818-833, December.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:47:y:1980:i:185:p:35-50 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Evans, Graham J, 1975. "A Note on Trends in the Relationship between Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 85(337), pages 135-139, March.
    4. Christopher A. Pissarides & Barbara Petrongolo, 2001. "Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 390-431, June.
    5. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    6. repec:rim:rimwps:27-08 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Hall, Robert E., 1979. "A theory of the natural unemployment rate and the duration of employment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 153-169, April.
    8. S. Lael Brainard & David M. Cutler, 1993. "Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment Reconsidered," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 219-243.
    9. Burch, Susan W & Fabricant, Ruth A, 1971. "Cyclical Behavior of Help-Wanted Index and the Unemployment Rate: A Reply," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 53(1), pages 105-106, February.
    10. Thirlwall, A P, 1969. "Types of Unemployment: With Special Reference to 'Non Demand-Deficient' Unemployment in Great Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 16(1), pages 20-49, February.
    11. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, April.
    12. Lilien, David M, 1982. "Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(4), pages 777-793, August.
    13. Warren, Ronald S, Jr, 1980. "Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies in U.S. Manufacturing: A Search-Turnover View," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(2), pages 292-295, May.
    14. Gujarati, Damodar, 1969. "Cyclical Behavior of Help-Wanted Index and the Unemployment Rate," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(4), pages 482-484, November.
    15. Pissarides, Christopher A, 1985. "Short-run Equilibrium Dynamics of Unemployment Vacancies, and Real Wages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 676-690, September.
    16. Oliver Jean Blanchard & Peter Diamond, 1989. "The Beveridge Curve," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 20(1), pages 1-76.
    17. Foster, J I, 1973. "The Behaviour of Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies: Great Britain, 1958-1971-A Comment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 83(329), pages 192-201, March.
    18. Abraham, Katharine G & Katz, Lawrence F, 1986. "Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or Aggregate Disturbances?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 507-522, June.
    19. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    20. Budd, Alan & Levine, Paul & Smith, Peter, 1987. "Long-term unemployment and the shifting U-V curve : A multi-country study," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 296-305.
    21. Taylor, Jim, 1972. "The Behaviour of Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies: Great Britain, 1958-71. An Alternative View," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(328), pages 1352-1365, December.
    22. Peter A. Diamond, 1982. "Wage Determination and Efficiency in Search Equilibrium," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(2), pages 217-227.
    23. Mortensen, Dale T. & Pissarides, Christopher A., 1999. "New developments in models of search in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 39, pages 2567-2627, Elsevier.
    24. Bent Hansen, 1970. "Excess Demand, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Wages," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(1), pages 1-23.
    25. repec:bla:econom:v:44:y:1977:i:174:p:179-96 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Gerard R. Butters, 1977. "Equilibrium Distributions of Sales and Advertising Prices," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 465-491.
    27. Gujarati, Damodar, 1972. "The Behaviour of Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies: Great Britain, 1958-71. An Alternative View: Reply," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(328), pages 1365-1368, December.
    28. Hosios, Arthur J, 1994. "Unemployment and Vacancies with Sectoral Shifts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 124-144, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriel P. Mathy, 2015. "Hysteresis and Persistent Long-Term Unemployment: Lessons from the Great Depression and World War II," Working Papers 2015-02, American University, Department of Economics.
    2. Peter Diamond, 2013. "Cyclical Unemployment, Structural Unemployment," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 61(3), pages 410-455, August.
    3. Stefan Schiman, 2021. "Labor Supply Shocks and the Beveridge Curve: Empirical Evidence from EU Enlargement," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 40, pages 108-127, April.
    4. Peter Rodenburg, 2016. "How Full is Full Employment?How Tools and Not Theory Explained Full Employment," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-25.
    5. Peter A. Diamond, 2013. "Structural unemployment," Public Policy Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    6. Michael W. L. Elsby & Ryan Michaels & David Ratner, 2015. "The Beveridge Curve: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(3), pages 571-630, September.
    7. Peter Rodenburg, 2010. "The UV or Beveridge Curve," Chapters, in: Mark Blaug & Peter Lloyd (ed.), Famous Figures and Diagrams in Economics, chapter 51, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Stefan Schiman, 2018. "Labor Supply Shocks and the Beveridge Curve," WIFO Working Papers 568, WIFO.
    9. Sorgner, Alina & Fritsch, Michael, 2018. "Entrepreneurial Career Paths: Occupational Environments and the Propensity to Become Self-Employed," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 234990, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    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. Rodenburg, Peter, 2007. "The Remarkable Place of the UV-Curve in Economic Theory," MPRA Paper 5823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Christopher A. Pissarides & Barbara Petrongolo, 2001. "Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 390-431, June.
    3. Yashiv, Eran, 2007. "Labor search and matching in macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1859-1895, November.
    4. Lisi, Gaetano, 2010. "Introduzione allo studio dei modelli di "matching" del mercato del lavoro [Introduction to the study of matching models of unemployment]," MPRA Paper 22735, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    6. Benedikt Herz & Thijs van Rens, 2020. "Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1619-1654.
    7. Lisi, Gaetano, 2013. "The Benchmark Macroeconomic Models of the Labour Market," MPRA Paper 62318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Farm, Ante, 2000. "Job Openings, Hirings, and Unmet Demand: A New Approach to the Matching Function and the Beveridge Curve," Working Paper Series 8/2000, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    9. Bandopadhyay, Titas Kumar, 2014. "Economic Reforms, Frictional Unemployment and Wage Inequality-----A General Equilibrium Analysis," MPRA Paper 59819, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Morvay, Endre, 2012. "Munkapiac keresési súrlódásokkal [Job-seeking on the labour market, with frictions]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 139-163.
    11. Richard Rogerson & Robert Shimer & Randall Wright, 2004. "Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market-A Survey," NBER Working Papers 10655, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Lisi, Gaetano, 2011. "Matching Models of Equilibrium Unemployment: An Overview," MPRA Paper 30191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Robert Shimer, 2007. "Mismatch," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1074-1101, September.
    14. Francesco Furlanetto & Nicolas Groshenny, 2012. "Matching efficiency and business cycle fluctuations," Working Paper 2012/07, Norges Bank.
    15. Anthony E. Smith & Yves Zenou, 2003. "A Discrete-Time Stochastic Model of Job Matching," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(1), pages 54-79, January.
    16. Tsasa, Jean-Paul K., 2022. "Labor market volatility in a fully specified RBC search model: An analytical investigation," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    17. Domenico Ferraro, 2018. "The Asymmetric Cyclical Behavior of the U.S. Labor Market," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 30, pages 145-162, October.
    18. Pissarides, Christopher A., 2015. "Dale Mortensen: An appreciation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 1-6.
    19. Francesco Furlanetto & Nicolas Groshenny, 2016. "Mismatch Shocks and Unemployment During the Great Recession," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1197-1214, November.
    20. Calvo-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2005. "Job matching, social network and word-of-mouth communication," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 500-522, May.

    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:taf:eujhet:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:125-153. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    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.