The paper presents a stochastic insider-outsider model that accounts for the following stylized facts: (1) unemployment … rates display a high degree of serial correlation, or `persistence'; (2) the average rate of unemployment has been higher in … long-run unemployment rate is independent of the level of productivity and the magnitude of the labour force. The model …

labour market institutions (e.g. unemployment benefits, job security legislation and payroll taxes) have complementary … effects on unemployment; and thus (b) that policies aimed at reforming these institutions are also complementary. These policy …) is unlikely to achieve significant reductions in unemployment. Rather, labour market reform becomes particularly …

We explore the far-reaching implications of replacing current unemployment benefit (UB) systems by an unemployment … balances in these accounts are available to them during periods of unemployment. The government is able to undertake balanced … model for the high unemployment countries of Europe. Our results suggest that this policy reform would significantly change …

opportunity to use part of their unemployment benefits to provide employment vouchers to the firms that hire them. The vouchers … would depend positively on unemployment duration and training. The paper argues that this policy would give unemployed … failures generated and amplified by unemployment benefit systems. A simple theoretical model is presented, followed by …

This Paper presents a reappraisal of unemployment movements in the European Union. Our analysis is based on the chain … reaction theory of unemployment, which focuses on (a) the interaction among labour market adjustment processes, (b) the … unemployment responses to each shock. Our analysis permits us to distinguish between the short- and long-run effects of the shocks …

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 explores the two common concepts of the natural rate of unemployment: (i) the stable, long-run equilibrium … rate of unemployment; and (ii) the equilibrium unemployment rate at which there is no tendency for this rate to change … towards which the equilibrium unemployment rate tends with the passage of time). Specifically, it is not a reference point in …

The paper examines the employment and unemployment implications of permitting unemployed people to use part of their … unemployment benefits to provide employment vouchers to the firms that hire them. This opportunity to transfer unemployment … benefits, `benefit transfers', would help replace the unemployment trap by providing an incentive to seek and provide jobs. The …

This paper attempts to explain disparities among the unemployment experiences of different OECD countries in terms of … the `fragility' of the short-run unemployment equilibrium (the impact of labour market shocks on the short …-run unemployment rate) and the lag structure of the employment determination, wage setting, and labour force participation decisions …