The Great Recession and Okun's law

Angelia Grant

Economic Modelling, 2018, vol. 69, issue C, 291-300

Abstract: The relationship between output and unemployment has been a widely discussed topic since the Great Recession. This paper jointly estimates a time-varying parameter Okun's law with two latent states: potential output and the natural rate of unemployment. It is found that there is substantial time variation in the Okun's coefficient in the US. Since the Great Recession, a given unemployment gap has been associated with a smaller output gap. The probability that the Okun's coefficient is equal to the widely accepted value of −2 fell significantly during the Great Recession, but has since risen despite the Okun's coefficient remaining at around −0.5. This illustrates the significant degree of uncertainty in the estimation of potential output and the natural rate of unemployment.

Keywords: Time variation; Output gap; Unemployment gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C15 C52 C58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:69:y:2018:i:c:p:291-300

DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2017.10.002

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