DP6236 The Beveridge Curve

Author(s):	Eran Yashiv
Publication Date:	April 2007
Keyword(s):	Beveridge curve, matching, search, unemployment, vacancies
JEL(s):	E24, J63, J64
Programme Areas:	International Macroeconomics, Labour Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6236

The Beveridge curve depicts a negative relationship between unemployed workers and job vacancies, a robust finding across countries. The position of the economy on the curve gives an idea as to the state of the labour market. The modern underlying theory is the search and matching model, with workers and firms engaging in costly search leading to random matching. The Beveridge curve depicts the steady state of the model, whereby inflows into unemployment are equal to the outflows from it, generated by matching.