This broad survey of unemployment will be a major source of reference for both scholars and students. It aims to provide a basis for better policy: showing how the lessons learned from experience and theory can be applied to greatly reduce the waste and misery of high unemployment.

Overview; The Microfoundations: Wage Bargaining and Unions; Efficiency Wages; Wage Behaviour: The Evidence; Job Search: The Duration of Unemployment; Mismatch: The Structure of Unemployment; The Pricing and Employment Behaviour of Firms; The Macroeconomic Outcome: The Macroeconomics of Unemployment; Explaining Post-War Unemployment in OECD Countries; Policy Implications: Policies to Cut Unemployment

`convincingly refutes the idea that countries have no choice but to live with high unemployment.' The Economist `an important book ... which synthesises mainstream economic views on the subject.' Christopher Huhne, The Independent on Sunday `The Bible of anyone this year concerned with the causes of unemployment and what we can do about it is a book published recently in London. It should be the starting point for any sensible discussion on the subject from now on.' Padraic P. McGuinness, The Australian `very valuable' Paul Ryan, University of Cambridge `The authors are experts in this field, and the book will be a major reference work for scholars and students. Highly recommended for graduate and upper-division undergraduate collections.' Social and Behavioral Sciences `Taken simply as a review of the literature, the book is a monumental achievement: there are some 480 references listed. But it is much more than that. Theoretical models are set up, one by one, for the many individual relationships that bear, directly or indirectly, on unemployment, and these models are then subject to statistical analysis ... There is no question that this book is essential reading for economists concerned with unemployment, but it should also be studied by everyone in industry concerned with wage bargaining, whether employer or trade unionist.' British Journal of Industrial Relations 'impressive and salutary book ... they sustain an explanatory commentary in plain English ... so that careful readers should be able to follow the reasoning and assess the empirical evidence' P.A. McGavin, University of New South Wales, Policy, Summer 1992/93 'The leading international text on this subject is Unemployment by Richard Layard, Stephen Nickell and Richard Jackman.' Geoffrey Lehmann, The Australian