European Union economies are pressed by (i) a demographic change that induces population ageing and a decline of the workforce, and (ii) a split labour market that is characterized by high levels of unemployment for low-skilled people and a simultaneous shortage of skilled workers. This lack of...

Switzerland, traditionally a ?zero unemployment? economy, has seen an unprecedented rise in joblessness in the 1990s although unemployment fell again to a rather low level after 1997. This paper tests whether Switzerland experienced a negative relative net demand shock against the low skilled...

Highly-skilled migrants are becoming a more important part of the world economy and of policy debates in a diverse set of countries. The proliferation of skills around the world, increases in world trade, the growth of R&D, and the general increase in the labor market demand for diverse sets of...

This paper considers the policy options of the West Bank and Gaza (WBG) with respect to trade and the exports of labor services. It concludes that i) a non-discriminatory trade policy (NDTP) is unambiguously superior to an FTA with Israel; ii) the WBG should pursue a NDTP with all its neighbors,...

We study immigrants in temporary employment agencies in Sweden using a unique data set that covers all aged 16-64 who were employed by temporary employment agencies (TEAs) in Sweden in November 1999, with information on their employment status in 1998 and 2000. We find that young people, women,...

There is a well-established high quality literature on the role of networks, particularly ethnic networks, in international trade. Ethnic networks are a way of overcoming informal barriers (information costs, risk and uncertainty) to trade by building trust and substituting for the difficulty of...

This paper uses U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000 to provide evidence on the labor market characteristics of European-born workers living in the US. It is found that there is a positive wage premium associated with these workers, and that the highly skilled are overrepresented compared with...

Trade and migration have become more important in recent years for Austria and Germany. The transition in Central and Eastern Europe has played an important role in this development. The derived labor market consequences are not fully clear so far. This paper presents the results of econometric...

Based on the current European discussion about immigration policy, this paper gives an overview of central economic consequences of immigration for a host country?s labor market. The most important theoretical arguments are presented and evaluated against the available empirical evidence. The...

Mit dem Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz (AEntG) vom 29. Februar 1996 hat der deutsche Gesetzgeber eine Mindestlohnregelung eingeführt, die den Arbeitsmarkt in der Baubranche entlasten soll, der sich nach dem ersten Bauboom der deutschen Vereinigung seit wenigen Jahren in einer konjunkturellen und...