The paper was produced as a background paper on labor issues for the UNDP study "Convergence to the European Union: Challenges and Opportunities." It first looks at the issue of how the labor market institutions of an acceding country like Macedonia should be shaped to further the integration of...

This paper assesses macroeconomic determinants of labour mobility and its role in the adjustment to asymmetric shocks. First, the paper develops stylised facts of mobility at the national and sub-national levels in the EU. Then, it explores the macroeconomic determinants of bilateral migration...

This paper concisely reviews what we know about the experience of an enlarging European Union with free movement of workers within its borders. We focus on the two most recent, Eastern, enlargement waves of 2004 and 2007. We first assess the actual migration flows following the enlargements...

The free movement of people and of workers (intra EU mobility) is one of the corner-stones of the EU. It has overwhelmingly benefitted the citizens of the EU member states both in the countries of work and in the countries of origin. Earlier apprehensions on crowding out of less educated workers...

The rapid journey from central planning to EU (euro area) membership stress-tested the social learning processes of the Former Transition Economies (FTEs). The desire for a higher standard of living, to be anchored to the West, and to enter the EU, spurred major reform waves and led to the very...