Now, at the end of the 20th century, many OECD countries face serious problems in achieving both prosperity and social cohesion. One important - and sadly neglected - source of these problems are the very policy systems that are meant to address them. I will argue that these policy systems -...

Professor Dennis J. Snower, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy since 2004, addresses the riddle of persistent unemployment in free market economies, outlining first a set of popular explanations for this phenomenon (and quickly showing why they are inadequate), then the main...

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 extensive reform programs. We argue that the heart of...