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 …

Switzerland, traditionally a ‘zero unemployment’ economy, has seen an unprecedented rise in joblessness in the 1990s … although unemployment fell again to a rather low level after 1997. This Paper tests whether Switzerland experienced a negative … shock and find that they were rigid, which can explain the relative unemployment increase for this group. Finally, I test …

interact and affect the evolution of unemployment rates and participation rates, the two main indicators of labour market … performance. Our analysis has two special features. First, apart from the two labour market states - employment and unemployment … that a shock to the net flow from unemployment to employment drive the unemployment rate and the participation rate in …

The unemployment gender gap, defined as the difference between female and male unemployment rates, was positive until … 1980. This gap virtually disappeared after 1980, except during recessions when men's unemployment rate always exceeds women …'s. We study the evolution of these gender differences in unemployment from a long-run perspective and over the business …

This paper develops a theory characterizing the effects of fiscal policy on unemployment over the business cycle. The … theory is based on a model of equilibrium unemployment in which jobs are rationed in recessions. Fiscal policy in the form of … government spending on public-sector jobs reduces unemployment, especially during recessions: the fiscal multiplier …