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The Official Journal of the Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS)

Table 1 Variables and data

From: Unemployment and the European Union, 2000–2017: structural exploration of distant past economic experience and future prosperity

Category

Economic indicators

Fiscal, F

Fiscal generally means government expenditures and revenues. This paper aims to capture the economic contribution between public debt and investment subsidy (e.g., Saint-Paul 1992). This has the implication of fiscal policy on long-run growth (e.g., Barro and Sala-I-Martin 1992). Thus, the fiscal effect is based on the performance of real GDP. This variable is measured using the log of constant 2010 US dollars. The data are sourced from the World Bank national accounts data (2019)

Nominal, N

According to Fisher (1926, 1973), inflation should be measured using changes in consumer price. This is indicated by annual inflation rates that capture percentage changes in the cost of a basket of goods and services for an average consumer. The data are sourced from the International Financial Statistics and data files (2019) of the International Monetary Fund

Trade-related, R

Trade-related effects are tested using three variables. In addition to a trade variable, larger country size can enhance gains from trade (Alesina et al. 2005). Therefore, the size of the labor force is also used as a trade-related variable. Recognizing that the elasticity of labor–capital substitution can determine how unemployment can be influenced by labor supply and capital investment (Rowthorn 1999), this paper includes capital as the other trade-related variable, where trade is measured in percent of GDP, labor force is measured using the log of total people of age 15 years and older, and gross capital formation is measured using the log of constant 2010 US dollars. The data on labor supply were derived by the World Bank using the data from the ILOSTAT database (2019) of the International Labour Organization. The data on capital formation and trade are sourced from the World Bank national accounts data (2019)

Dependent, U

Unemployment is chosen as a dependent variable, not only because high employment is one of the major goals of economic policy (Friedman 1968; Snowdon and Vane 2005, p. 7), unemployment is shown to cause depression worse than inflation in a study of 12 European countries and the US (Di Tella et al. 2001). Unemployment is measured in percent of the total labor force; the data are estimates provided by the International Labor Organization and have been harmonized for cross-country comparability over time in terms of scope of coverage, methodology, data sources, and other country-specific factors. The data are sourced from the ILOSTAT database (2019) of the International Labour Organization

  1. The compilation of the indicators stated in this table is available from the World Development Indicators database (2019) of the World Bank