This paper discusses how an industrialized country could defend the wages and social benefits of its unskilled workers against wage competition from immigrants. It shows that fixing social standards harms the workers and that fixing social replacement incomes implies migration into unemployment....

Over the last decade, European Union members have experienced a dramatic increase in imports. This increase was accompanied by a strong growth in the number of imported goods and trading partners, indicating positive welfare gains for consumers via an extended set of consumption possibilities,...

In this paper an alternative view of the relation between the wage level, wage dispersion, training incentives and employment is presented. We provide some theoretical arguments which cast doubt on the standard thesis that unemployment - especially in Germany - is mainly caused by labor market...