This paper estimates a series of shocks to hit the US economy during the Great Depression, using a New Keynesian model with unemployment and bargaining frictions. Shocks to long-run inflation expectations appear to account for much of the cyclical behavior of employment, while an increase in...

We document three changes in postwar US macroeconomic dynamics: (i) the procyclicality of labor productivity has vanished, (ii) the relative volatility of employment has risen, and (iii) the relative (and absolute) volatility of the real wage has risen. We propose an explanation for all three...

Firms adjust labor both at the intensive and at the extensive margin (see, e.g., Hansen and Sargent 1988). Moreover, employment adjustment is not frictionless (see, e.g., Mortensen and Pissarides 1994). What does this imply for inflation dynamics? To address this question we develop a New...