The paper studies the major institutional changes that are at the root of the increase in the west European unemployment rate in the last quartercentury from below 3 percent to 11 percent. The institutional characteristics of wage bargaining, the tax wedge and the legal rules hamper the...

The paper presents labor productivities in the member countries of Euroland. The result is that there is quite a divergence in labor productivities (per head) in the European Monetary Union. The Netherlands and Italy reach 85 percent of the West German level, Spain 62 and Portugal 35. This...

Rising income inequality is an anglo Saxon problem. For most of the other OECD countries, earnings dispersion is rather persistent. Vertical mobility is to be taken into account. The paper also looks at the relationship of income inequality, growth and employment. It elaborates the point that...

Wie sich in einer Volkswirtschaft die Arbeitslosigkeit entwickelt, läßt sich vielfältig illustrieren. In diesem Papier werden einige Schaubilder und Tabellen dargestellt, die wichtige Aspekte der Entwicklung der Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland beinhalten.

Die Schaffung eines einheitlichen Geldes in Europa und die Vergemeinschaftung der Geldpolitik bedeuten eine einschneidende institutionelle Änderung. In diesem Beitrag wird analysiert, was zu tun und was zu lassen ist, damit das historisch bedeutsame Vorhaben ein Erfolg wird. Zwölf...

Europe’s labor is not competitiveness taking unemployment as the relevant indicator. The paper looks at other indicators such as job creation, productivity and unit labor costs and skills. It analyzes the reasons for the lack of competitiveness including a low degree of wage differentiation,...