Download or read book Unemployment Persistence and Capital Shortage written by Mr.Benedikt Braumann and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1997-06-01 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the link between capital stock and unemployment persistence. An overlapping-generations model with endogenous labor supply and imperfect competition is presented. It is used to interpret the unusual persistence of unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago during the last twenty years. Although real wages are 60 percent lower today than in the mid-1980s, unemployment continues to be very high. The paper argues that an important part of the explanation lies in the decline of capital stock in this country after years of very low savings and investment. Policies to address this capital shortage are discussed.