This paper reviews a new approach to the design of unemployment policies. It focuses on polciies that have become an increasingly popular weapon against long-term unempoloyment, namely, policies that subsidize the hiring of the long-term unemployed. Whereas the existing literature usually...

This paper explores the optimal design of subsidies for hiring unemployed workers ("employment vouchers" for short) in the context of a simple macroeconomic model of the labor market. Focusing on the short-term and long-term effects of the vouchers on employment and unemplkoyment, the analysis...