Our study compares the efficiency of unemployment insurance programs in a state union. A centralized insurance pools the cost of unemployment which implies a collective bargaining in the countries that leads to excessively high wages and inefficient insurance. Those high wages attract workers...

In this paper the seasonal unit root test of Hylleberg et al. (1990) is generalized to cover a heterogenous panel. The procedure follows the work of Im, Pesaran and Shin (2002). Test statistics are proposed and critical values are obtained by simulations. Moreover, the properties of the tests...

The present paper compares expected inflation to (econometric) inflation forecasts based on a number of forecasting techniques from the literature using a panel of ten industrialized countries during the period of 1988 to 2007. To capture expected inflation we develop a recursive filtering...

This paper examines the presence of sectoral convergence of labor productivity between 14 OECD countries. Using the OECD International Sectoral Data Base (ISDB), the paper looks at the developments within 12 distinct sectors during the period 1970-1995. The change of the coefficients of variance...

EU-TE trade is increasingly characterised by intra-industry trade. For some countries (Czech Republic), the share of intra-industry trade in total trade with the EU approaches 60 percent. The decomposition of intra-industry trade into horizontal and vertical shares reveals overwhelming vertical...

This paper examines the effects of the distribution of unemployment by age on the level of unemployment. We provide an extension of the standard equilibrium unemployment model that allows for age dependent job finding probabilities and quit rates. In the empirical part of the paper we apply a...

This paper examines the effects of the distribution of unemployment by duration on the level of unemployment. It explores one central as- sumption that is observed empirically: when the share of long-term (short-term) unemployed increases, the unemployment rate increases (decreases). By...

This paper introduces and examines a definition of an equilibrium rate of unemployment that can be used as mismatch indicator, too. In contrast to existing indicators this measurement method is based directly on the Beveridge-Curve. An application of the indicator to nine OECD countries leads to...