2023
Research
BPEA | 2000 No. 1Roots of the Recent Recoveries: Labor Reforms or Private Sector Forces?
David Jestaz,
DJ
David Jestaz
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques
Edmund S. Phelps,
ESP
Edmund S. Phelps
Columbia University
Gylfi Zoega, and
GZ
Gylfi Zoega
Birkbeck College
Jean-Paul Fitoussi
JF
Jean-Paul Fitoussi
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques
Christopher A. Sims and
Olivier Blanchard
Olivier Blanchard
C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
@ojblanchard1
DJ
David Jestaz
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques
ESP
Edmund S. Phelps
Columbia University
GZ
Gylfi Zoega
Birkbeck College
JF
Jean-Paul Fitoussi
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques

Olivier Blanchard
C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
@ojblanchard1
2000, No. 1
FROM THE MID-1970s to the mid-1980s, most of the industrial economies
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
suffered a sharp slide in economic activity, as measured both by employment
in relation to the labor force and by male labor force participation
in relation to the working-age population. This decline sparked new structuralist
modeling of the determinants of employment and supplied an
empirical record for testing the models. Some consensus has now emerged
on the main mechanisms and causal forces behind the deep slump.