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 into employment subsidies--“benefit transfers” for short--would help replace the unemployment trap by an incentive to …

The Spanish labor market is not working: the unemployment rate is structurally very high; wages are not very responsive … to labor market conditions, causing a high cyclicality of unemployment; and the labor market is highly dual. Compared … bringing the unemployment rate closer to the EU15 average. The key reform needed to reduce the share of temporary workers is …

unemployment are examined. In particular, the role of the unemployment insurance system in contributing to labor market rigidity … hypotheses concerning the slow employment growth and rise in unemployment since 1990 are evaluated. The analysis indicates that a … large part of the recent rise in the unemployment rate may reflect an increase in the structural rather than the cyclical …

The paper analyzes the wage-employment effects of replacing unemployment benefits by negative income taxes. It first … surveys the major equity and efficiency effects of unemployment benefits versus negative income taxes, and summarizes the … salient features of many European unemployment benefit systems in this light. Second, it presents a simple theoretical model …

ex-ante preparedness is needed to manage the risks. The paper discusses sovereign experience with disaster insurance as a … key instrument to mitigate the risks; proposes ways to judge the adequacy of insurance; and considers ways to enhance its … use by vulnerable countries. The paper especially aims to inform policy decisions on disaster insurance. Through …

invest prudently and so reduce bank risk taking. This systemic insurance effect will be relatively more important when …

unemployment by about 2.2 pp after five years. If sequencing is required, starting with PMRs would be more effective in boosting … output, while starting with LMRs would reduce unemployment faster. Finally, increasing unemployment benefits would be more …

This paper discusses the influence of economic growth on the equilibrium unemployment rate (NAIRU). It examines how …