Germany, as most other European countries, has been plagued by a persistently high level of long-term unemployment since the early 1980's. In contrast, long-term unemployment is much less of a problem in the United States. One potential reason for the different structure of unemployment relates...

This paper analyses the developments in the returns to education in West Germany for the period from 1984 to 1997. Based on simple Mincer-type wage equations, we estimate a return of about 8% for men and 10% for women, and these returns have remained remarkably stable over the period. On the...

It is often claimed that growing labor market imperfections and maladjustments can be blamed for the increase and persistence of unemployment in the Federal Republic of Germany. This paper attempts to marshall the empirical importance of these factors. Higher structural unemployment seems to be...

The main purpose of this paper is at least twofold. Firstly, the paper gives a record of fiscal policy in the Federal Republic of Germany by describing various phases of its design during the past twenty years. This is done on the background of changing economic conditions and different monetary...