The paper surveys unemployment policies for advanced market economies and evaluates them by examining the predictions … of the underlying macroeconomic theories. The basic idea is that, for the most part, different unemployment policy … - on the ability of these theories to predict some salient stylized facts about unemployment behaviour. The paper considers …

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 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 …

The analysis provides a new explanation for two widespread problems concerning European unemployment policy: the … disappointingly small effect of many past reform measures on unemployment; and the political difficulties in implementing more … implement broad-based reform strategies. Our analysis suggests that major unemployment policies are characterized by economic …

The paper explores the influence of job security provisions on employment and unemployment. We show that this influence …’ bargaining power in wage negotiations. Specifically, costs of firing and hiring reduce employment and stimulate unemployment when … offers an explanation for Europe’s favourable unemployment performance vis-à-vis the United States in the 1950s and 1960s …

This paper explores the two common concepts of the natural rate of unemployment: (i) the stable, long-run equilibrium … rate of unemployment; and (ii) the equilibrium unemployment rate at which there is no tendency for this rate to change … towards which the equilibrium unemployment rate tends with the passage of time). Specifically, it is not a reference point in …

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 …

, implicit contract theory, and efficiency wage theory. The third section concerns labour market institutions as sources of … unemployment: labour unions, supply shocks combined with real wage rigidity, and automation and trade combined with real wage … rigidity. The fourth and fifth sections deal with deficient demand and labour turnover costs as sources of unemployment. The …

resilience is depicted in two conceptually independent ways: (i) the tendency of exogenous variations in unemployment to become … perpetuated and (ii) the possibility that such swings may give rise to a wage-unemployment ratchet. In this manner, the analysis … attempts to provide an explanation of why unemployment rates in Europe and the United States have displayed an upward trend …