Issues of labor supply are at the heart of macroeconomic explanations of the large cyclical fluctuations of output observed in modern economies. This paper starts with a serious empirical examination of the view that the labor market is always in balance-that every observed combination of...

An equilibrium model of fluctuations has two components: an elastic labor supply schedule and a source of shifts of the labor demand schedule. In the real business cycle model, shifts of labor demand follow from vibrations in the production function. In the model of this paper, shifts of labor...

In modern economies, sharp increases in unemployment from major adverse shocks result in long periods of abnormal unemployment and low output. This chapter investigates the processes that account for these persistent slumps. The data are from the economy of the United States, and the discussion...