this unforeseen increase in unemployment. We then discuss the role of labour market institutions in the adjustment process … that has brought unemployment back to normal levels. We argue that these institutions cannot be blamed for the increase in … unemployment, but that more flexible institutions could have lead to a more rapid decline in unemployment. …

We evaluate the effects of international outsourcing and labor taxation on wage formation and equilibrium unemployment … reduce equilibrium unemployment of low-skilled workers both in the presence and absence of labor taxation. In the presence of … outsourcing, wage tax, tax exemption and payroll tax have an ambiguous effect on equilibrium unemployment. Increasing the degree …