This paper provides new evidence on the nature of occupational differences in unemployment dynamics, which is relevant for the debate between the structural or hysteresis hypotheses. We develop a procedure that permits us to test for the presence of a structural break at unknown date[...]

A major criticism against staggered nominal contracts is that they give rise to the so called"persistency puzzle" – although they generate price inertia, they cannot account for thestylised fact of inflation persistence. It is thus commonly asserted that, in the context of thenew Phillips curve...