The paper examines the employment and unemployment implications of permitting unemployed people to use part of their … unemployment benefits to provide employment vouchers to the firms that hire them. This opportunity to transfer unemployment … benefits, `benefit transfers', would help replace the unemployment trap by providing an incentive to seek and provide jobs. The …

This paper evaluates two theories of unemployment: the natural rate theory (whereby unemployment is depicted as … fluctuating around a reasonably stable natural rate) and the chain reaction theory (which views movements in unemployment as the … unemployment not only in the short run, but in the long run as well. The reason is that, in the presence of growing exogenous …

This paper attempts to explain disparities among the unemployment experiences of different OECD countries in terms of … the `fragility' of the short-run unemployment equilibrium (the impact of labour market shocks on the short …-run unemployment rate) and the lag structure of the employment determination, wage setting, and labour force participation decisions …

The paper presents a stochastic insider-outsider model that accounts for the following stylized facts: (1) unemployment … rates display a high degree of serial correlation, or `persistence'; (2) the average rate of unemployment has been higher in … long-run unemployment rate is independent of the level of productivity and the magnitude of the labour force. The model …

This paper views movements in unemployment as the result of the interaction between: (a) lags in labour market … decisions; and (b) labour market shocks with temporary and permanent components. Two features of unemployment dynamics are … examined: (i) `unemployment persistence', arising when temporary shocks have persistent effects on unemployment; and (ii …

opportunity to use part of their unemployment benefits to provide employment vouchers to the firms that hire them. The vouchers … would depend positively on unemployment duration and training. The paper argues that this policy would give unemployed … failures generated and amplified by unemployment benefit systems. A simple theoretical model is presented, followed by …

labour market institutions (e.g. unemployment benefits, job security legislation and payroll taxes) have complementary … effects on unemployment; and thus (b) that policies aimed at reforming these institutions are also complementary. These policy …) is unlikely to achieve significant reductions in unemployment. Rather, labour market reform becomes particularly …

This paper explores the interrelation between the degree of unemployment persistence and the unemployment … unemployment and making unemployment less persistent, the less effective will be the growth-promoting supply-side policies (such as … training schemes) in reducing unemployment. …

vouchers on employment and unemployment, the analysis shows how the optimal policy depends on the rates of hiring and firing … the level of unemployment benefits in optimal policy design. …