Underlying trends in employment-output equation: the case of Jordan

Abstract

The underlying employment trend (UET) is investigated in Jordanian economy over the period 1989-2004 using structural time series model (STSM). This approach allows to modelling the trend in its stochastic form introduced by Harvey (1989). The results show that a stochastic trend is preferred to deterministic trend. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of the conventional deterministic trend leads to overestimated output elasticity. Furthermore, the UET is found to be non-linear, down downward sloping.