Firing costs are often blamed for unemployment. This paper investigates this well spread belief. The main points are …

European regions have experienced a polarisation of their unemployment rates between 1986 and 1996, as regions with …

unemployment. Although these contracts have been widely used, unemployment has remained about the same after fifteen years. This …

Average unemployment in Europe today is relatively high compared with OECD countries outside Europe. The majority of … countries in Europe today have lower unemployment than any OECD country outside Europe, including the US. These two fa cts are …), have very high unemployment and most of the rest have comparatively low unemployment. This variability is highly …

This paper tests whether aggregate matching is consistent with unemployment being mainly due to search frictions or due … with reference to the design of optimal unemployment insurance programs. …