This paper asks how well Okun’s Law fits short-run unemployment movements in the United States since 1948 and in … the unemployment rate—varies substantially across countries. This variation is partly explained by idiosyncratic …

-market slack is captured by the level of shortterm unemployment. This equation explains inflation behavior since 2000, including … the failure of high total unemployment since 2008 to reduce inflation greatly. The fit of our equation is especially good … general Phillips curve in which core inflation depends on short-term unemployment and on expected inflation as measured by the …

This paper provides an assessment of the consistency of unemployment and output forecasts. We show that, consistent … with Okun’s Law, forecasts of real GDP growth and the change in unemployment are negatively correlated. The Okun … coefficient—the responsiveness of unemployment to growth—from forecasts is fairly similar to that in the data for various …