EXCESS LABOR AND THE BUSINESS-CYCLE - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF JAPAN, GERMANY, THE UNITED-KINGDOM AND THE UNITED-STATES

Against the background of firm-specific human capital theory, this pap er investigates empirically the relative propensity of manufacturing i ndustries in Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States to hold excess labour over the business cycle. Both stock and utilizat ion dimensions of the labour input are integrated into the study. Thro ughout, discussion is linked to earlier research that has analysed the relative international performance of the Japanese labour market.