Mini course day 1

Richard Rogerson gives a mini course on macro labor at SSE. The materials covered are different from my expectation but I really like his presentation. Today is an overview about the stylized facts of unemployment and working hours in OECD countries. Basically he lets data talk. As he stressed, thinking quatatitively is a key feature of modern macroeconometrists. A theory should not only account for why unemployment rate increases or decreases, but also for why it increases 3 points not .3 points. Another point I took from his talk is how to think a bit deeper: taking into account time-series. This reminds me of 'comparative advantage' argument of Lin Yifu. If comparative advantage accounts for the economic miracle of China after 1980s, we should also see this advantage before 1980s...

I guess professor Rogerson is not a fan of thinking differences in labor participation in terms of gender differences. It seems labor participation is gender-neutral from time-series data.