Unemployment Surges in the EU : The Role of Risk Premium Shocks /

In the last decade, over half of the EU countries in the euro area or with currencies pegged to the euro were hit by large risk premium shocks. Previous papers have focused on the impact of these shocks on demand. This paper, by contrast, focuses on the impact on supply. We show that risk premium sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bakker, Bas
Other Authors: Korczak, Marta, Krogulski, Krzysztof
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2019.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2019/056
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:In the last decade, over half of the EU countries in the euro area or with currencies pegged to the euro were hit by large risk premium shocks. Previous papers have focused on the impact of these shocks on demand. This paper, by contrast, focuses on the impact on supply. We show that risk premium shocks reduce the output level that maximizes profit. They also lead to unemployment surges, as firms are forced to cut costs when financing becomes expensive or is no longer available. As a result, all countries with risk premium shocks saw unemployment surge, even as euro area core countries managed to contain unemployment as firms hoarded labor during the downturn. Most striking, wage bills in euro area crisis countries and the Baltics declined even faster than GDP, whereas in core euro area countries wage shares actually increased.
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Physical Description:1 online resource (33 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students