WJEC A-Level Economics 1520QS
Scarcity and Choice
Demand and Supply in Product Markets
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets
Resource Allocation
Market Failure
Macroeconomic Theory (AS)
Government Policy Objectives
Policy Instruments (AS)
International Trade (AS)
Costs, Revenues and Profits
Market Structures
Macroeconomic Theory (A2)
Macroeconomic Objectives (A2)
Policy Instruments (A2)
International Trade (A2)
Non-UK Economies
Economic Development
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.
What is meant by hysteresis in the labour market?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 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
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
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
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
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
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.
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