A search and matching model, when calibrated to the mean and volatility of unemployment in the postwar sample, can … potentially explain the unemployment crisis in the Great Depression. The limited responses of wages from credible bargaining to … labor market conditions, along with the congestion externality from matching frictions, cause the unemployment rate to rise …

employment is the efficient unemployment rate, u*. We define u* as the unemployment rate that minimizes the nonproductive use of …). Accordingly, the efficient unemployment rate is the geometric average of the unemployment and vacancy rates: u* = √uv. We compute …

All developed economies have unemployment benefit programs to protect workers against major income losses during spells … of unemployment. By enabling unemployed workers to meet basic consumption needs, the programs protect workers from having … recessions. If benefits are too generous, however, the programs can lengthen unemployment and raise the unemployment rate. The …

The increase in unemployment to relatively high levels for Switzerland in the 1990s gave rise to two fears: First, that … unemployment, i.e. the rate of employment that prevails even in favourable economic conditions, is on an increasing trend. This … "equilibrium" rate of unemployment exhibit a large spread and tend to follow actual rates. Our judgement is, that its increase over …

Measures of individual happiness, or well-being, can guide labor market policies. Individual unemployment, as well as … the rate of unemployment in society, have a negative effect on happiness. In contrast, employment protection and … unemployment benefits can contribute to happiness - though when such policies prolong unemployment, the net effect on national …

, and a temporary impact on unemployment. However, labour market integration of immigrants (as well as integration of second …

spanning the period 1996 to 2004. The effects of changes in the minimum wage on unemployment, formal-sector employment and the …

major challenges for policy makers in Finland. The recession of the early 1990s showed that high unemployment can leave long …, greater flexibility in wage setting, ensuring earlier activation of unemployed and reforming unemployment and social benefits … to better support work incentives. Finland has an unusual combination of elevated unemployment replacement rates and late …

Licensed workers could be shielded from unemployment during recession since occupational licensing laws are asymmetric …-in-differences event study research design that exploits cross-state variation in licensing laws to compare the unemployment rate between …, we find that licensing shields workers from a recession-induced increase in the unemployment rate of 0.82 p.p. during …