This paper discusses the Finnish experiences of Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP) across the economic cycle, especially in economic downturn. Cuts in unemployment spell duration have been the main factors to contribute in decreasing the unemployment in the recent years. Subsidised employment...

Revised: 2006-05.-- Published as an article in: Journal of Population Economics, 2007, vol. 18, issue 1, pp. 165-179.

This paper points out an empirical failing of real business cycle models in which unemployment is endogenized through a matching function. One can easily choose a calibration to make the cyclical fluctuation in unemployment as large in the model as it is in the data, or to make the response of...