The literature on unemployment dynamics is mainly concerned with the nature and impact of shocks to unemployment. In this paper we use OECD unemployment data to infer the nature of these shocks using factor analysis. We find that two Principal Components can account for a large part of the...

In this paper we look at the costs and benefits for Iceland from joining the EMU from a labour-market perspective. We conclude that none of Mundell's three criteria for an optimal currency area are at present fulfilled for Iceland and the initial Euro zone. Shocks to the Icelandic economy are...

This paper uses survey data from Iceland on 884 firms to test for the theory of customer markets proposed by Phelps and Winter (1970) and Okun (1981). The results provide support for the customer market theory in that managers agree that customers are valuable to firms - they rank them second...

This paper derives the relationship between central bank interest rates and exchange rates under a capital control regime. Higher interest rate may strengthen the currency by reducing consumption and imports and by inducing foreign owners of local currency assets not to sell local currency off...

A medium-term relationship exists between share prices, normalised by labour productivity, and the rate of unemployment in the OECD countries. A similar relationship appears to exist between unemployment and house prices. This helps explain decadal changes in mean unemployment, such as the shift...