This paper starts from the observation that despite their very high levels of unemployment, major European countries … have devoted few resources to reducing it. This suggests that there is little political concern about high unemployment. I …

In this paper we present an investigation of unemployment persistence in Japan, the United States and fourteen European … recent differential unemployment persistence in our sample of countries: first, sluggishness in labour demand, and second … deviations from target. We also examine the short-run and medium-run effects on unemployment of shocks and policies that shift …

We study a number of mechanisms through which an economy can be stuck at a high unemployment equilibrium because a poor … measures that have been undertaken to cure unemployment. The message of the paper is that curing the European unemployment …

We develop a general equilibrium analysis of the impact of active labour market policy on unemployment, wages and the … employed have little exposure to unemployment and if the demand for unskilled labour is inelastic, there may be political … support for policies which actually raise the equilibrium level of total unemployment. …

exercise in fiscal rectitude of the 1980s and focusing on its two most extreme cases, Denmark and Ireland. We find that at …