Macroeconomic Shocks and Okun's Law

I propose a simple method to estimate a macro shock-specific Okun elasticity, which characterises by how much the unemployment rate falls when output increases by one percentage point because of a specific macroeconomic shock. Using data for the US, I consider government spending, tax, monetary policy, financial, technology, and oil shocks. I find the Okun elasticity is largely stable across shocks, but subtle differences emerge: (i) the elasticity is larger for financial shocks, (ii) the speed at which unemployment adjusts relative to output depends on the shock driving fluctuations.