Full employment abandoned: shifting sands and policy failures

Abstract

This paper briefly analyses the shifts in economic theory that have moved policy makers from unambiguously pursuing full employment to the current state where full employability is justified as being optimal. We also explore how these theoretical developments translated in practice, culminating in the 1994 OECD Jobs Study, which eschewed a role for macroeconomic policy in reducing unemployment. The final sections of the paper outline an alternative view of macroeconomic theory and policy opportunities. We argue that a central plank in modern macroeconomic policy settings should be the introduction of employment guarantees, which we term the Job Guarantee (JG).

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