This paper analyzes the strikingly different response of unemployment to the Great Recession in France and Spain. Their … labor market institutions are similar and their unemployment rates just before the crisis were both around 8%. Yet, in … France, unemployment rate has increased by 2 percentage points, whereas in Spain it has shot up to 19% by the end of 2009. We …

downward rigidity, and magnifying the response of unemployment to negative shocks. We also consider layoffs and show that for a …

Efficiency wages theories argue that the threat of firing, coupled with a high unemployment rate, is a mechanism that … discourages employee shirking in asymmetric information contexts. Our empirical analysis aims to verify the role of unemployment …, we investigate the relationship between worker’s absences and local unemployment rate (at the provincial level). We find …

unemployment. Labor market regulations, unemployment benefits, and high levels of public consumption in many European countries …

market and, on rigid labor markets, for unemployment. Exploiting variation in exit-exam systems across German states, we find … market, as well as with lower unemployment. …