According to Okun's law, if the unemployment rate goes from 2% to 5%, what will be the effect on the GDP?

Question

Israel Huff

Mathematics

8 August, 17:12

According to Okun's law, if the unemployment rate goes from 2% to 5%, what will be the effect on the GDP?

+2

Answers (2)

Know the Answer?

Nehemiah Wang · Answer 1

Okun was a professor at Yale who studied relationship between unemployment and productivity. He observed that for the US, w hen unemployment rises by 1%, then GDP is expected to fall by 2%.

So when unemployment goes from 2% to 5%, the GDP will fall by (5-2) * 2 = 6%

Harper Everett · Answer 2

According to this law, when unemployment goes up by 1%, GDP drops by 2%. In the question, unemployment rate goes from 2% to 5%, meaning unemployment goes up by 3%, so the GDP drops by 6%. Thus the effect is a drop in GDP by 6%.