Full Employment Abandoned

William Mitchell, Professor of Economics, Centre of Full Employment and Equity, University of Newcastle, Australia and Joan Muysken, Professor of Economics, CofFEE-Europe, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands

• Contents: Part I: Full Employment: Changing Views and Policies 1. The Full Employment Framework and its Demise 2. Early Views on Unemployment and the Phillips Curve 3. The Phillips Curve and Shifting Views on Unemployment 4. The Troublesome NAIRU: The Hoax that Undermined Full Employment Part II: Full Employment Abandoned: Shifting Sands and Policy Failures 5. The Shift to Full Employability 6. Inflation First: The New Mantra of Macroeconomics 7. The Neglected Role of Aggregate Demand Part III: The Urgency of Full Employment: Foundations for an Active Policy 8. A Monetary Framework for Fiscal Policy Activism 9. Buffer Stocks and Price Stability 10. Conclusion: The Urgency of Full Employment References Index

'This book by William Mitchell and Joan Muysken is both important and timely. It deals with the issue of the abandonment of full employment as an objective of economic policy in the OECD countries. It argues persuasively that macroeconomic policy has been restrictive over the recent, and not so recent past, and has produced substantial open and disguised unemployment. But the authors show how a job guarantee policy can enable workers, who would otherwise be unemployed, to earn a wage and not depend on welfare support. If such a policy is fully supported by appropriate fiscal and monetary programmes, it can create full employment with price stability, which the authors label as a Non-Accelerating-Inflation-Buffer Employment Ratio (NAIBER). This book is essential reading for any one wishing to understand how we can return to full employment as the normal state of affairs.'