Unemployment hysteresis in the EU15: Has anything changed?

The financial crisis of 2008 quickly spread from the USA to the world's major economies and might have impacted on the persistence of unemployment. This might happen because the crisis ushered in recession to every country affected and, in the aftermath, most countries have pursued austerity measures to reduce their growing levels of debt. This paper analyses the dynamics of unemployment in the EU 15 and the USA to assess whether these dynamics have changed over our sample period.