levo

Macroeconomic Objectives (A2)

Unemployment (A2): Causes

  • 2 things to know
  • A2 Units 3 and 4

Overview

Recall questions on Causes.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Evaluation

What three advantages are claimed for a more flexible labour market?

Key term

What is meant by hysteresis in the labour market?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    On this model, what must happen if a government wants to bring down an established rate of inflation?

    Model answer

    Unemployment has to be allowed to rise above the natural rate for a period so that wage and price expectations fall, pulling each successive short-run curve downwards.

  2. 2

    How can governments limit hysteresis in the labour market?

    Model answer

    By acting quickly in a downturn to stop unemployment becoming long-term, and through training, job-search support and work placements that keep the long-term unemployed attached to the labour market.

  3. 3

    What are three mechanisms through which hysteresis raises the natural rate?

    Model answer

    Skills and work habits decay during long spells out of work, employers treat long-term unemployment as a screening signal and pass such applicants over, and those still in work bargain over their own wages without regard for the outsiders trying to get back in.

  4. 4

    Why does hysteresis strengthen the case for acting quickly against a demand-side downturn?

    Model answer

    Because unemployment that starts out as temporary and cyclical can harden into structural unemployment if it is left to persist, shifting the long-run Phillips curve to the right and lowering output permanently.

  5. 5

    Why is demand-side policy a poor remedy for unemployment that is already at the natural rate?

    Model answer

    Extra aggregate demand cannot cure a mismatch of skills or location, so it mainly bids up wages and prices, and unemployment returns to the natural rate once expectations adjust, leaving higher inflation behind.

  6. 6

    Evaluate the use of supply-side measures such as retraining and better job-search support to reduce unemployment.

    Model answer

    They tackle the causes of equilibrium unemployment and can lower the natural rate permanently, but they work slowly, cost the taxpayer money, and achieve little on their own if the immediate problem is a shortage of aggregate demand.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Scarcity and Choice
Demand and Supply in Product Markets
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets
Resource Allocation

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

V is of circulation.
velocityvolumevalue

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AThe demand curve shifts to the left.
BExcess supply exists at the original price.
CPrice falls until a new equilibrium is reached.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Actual growth means a realised increase in output.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Macroeconomic Objectives (A2), on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.