M***s
发帖数: 96 | 1 关键字：all unemployment is voluntary。
似乎不是那么难懂嘛。
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nobel-for-explaining-why-markets-fail-2010-10-11
Nobel for explaining why markets fail
Commentary: Searching adds frictions and costs to the economy
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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Three economists — including one rejected by
the Senate as too inexperienced to work at the Federal Reserve — have won
the Nobel prize in economics for their work in explaining why markets
sometimes don’t work so well.
Trio Wins Nobel in Economics
Peter Diamond (center), Dale Mortensen (right) and Christopher Pissarides
win the 2010 Nobel economics prize for their work developing theories that
help explain how economic policies affect unemployment.
Specifically, Peter Diamond of MIT, Dale Mortensen of Northwestern
University and Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics were
honored for their insights into unemployment. It’s certainly a timely
topic. Read MarketWatch’s related article on the 2010 prize.
The problem with unemployment is that, theoretically, it shouldn’t exist.
Efficient market theory says unemployed workers should always be able to
find a job if they just lower their standards enough, just as all employers
should be able to find workers if they just lower theirs.
By this theory, all unemployment is voluntary.
Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides reject that theory, arguing that it’s
costly to find just the right job — that is, one that matches your skills
and abilities and pays you what you are worth. From the employer’s point of
view, it’s just as costly: All the applicants look pretty much the same at
first; it’s not easy to tell beforehand if they can do the job, or whether
you can find someone who’ll do the job for less. Searching, in sum, is
costly.
The upshot of this research is that this searching — they called it “
friction” — can make markets inefficient. Taking the first job offered, or
hiring the first applicant would mean the economy wouldn’t work as well as
it could. We’d get Ph.D.’s driving cabs, and high-school dropouts running
nuclear plants.
Sometimes government policies can reduce the inefficiencies, but sometimes
they can make them worse. Providing unemployment benefits can keep workers
from accepting the wrong job out of desperation, but providing too many
benefits can lead to search times running even longer than necessary.
The research begun by Diamond, the one whose nomination to the Fed was left
languishing by the Senate, as well as Mortensen and Pissarides has been
extended into other markets and other economic conundrums, helping us to
understand how markets actually work, and how we can make them work better. | y*********u
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