Using data on 53 countries, this paper studies the unemployment effects of the far-reaching banking liberalization that many countries engaged in between the late 1970s and the early 2000s. According to the regression results, this liberalization substantially decreased unemployment,...

Using data from 58 countries and the period 1980 to 2003, this paper analyzes how the size of government affects unemployment in developing countries. According to the regression results, a large government sector is likely to increase unemployment. A large share of government consumption in...

Using data on 20 industrial countries over the period 1982 to 2003, this article finds central bank independence to favorably affect both unemployment and employment rates. The size of these effects appears to be substantial, particularly in the long term. In contrast to some of the previous...

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze how financial system turmoil affected unemployment in industrial countries during the period 1982 to 2003. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses annual data on 17 industrial countries. It employs the International Monetary Fund's financial stress...

This paper econometrically analyzes whether and to what extent the structural features of the legal system affect the labor market. According to the regression results, a legal system characterized by judicial dependence, biased courts, a lack of intellectual property protection, frequent...

This article studies the effects of the real interest rate on labor market performance. Using a much larger sample of countries and more indicators of labor market performance than have been used in previous articles, it finds that a rise in the real interest rate increases the unemployment...

Using data on 68 developing countries from 1979 to 2008 and controlling for a wide array of factors, this paper finds that a rise in the real interest rate increases the unemployment rate and decreases the employment rate. The magnitude of these effects is small. The results are robust to...

Using data on 74 countries and a large number of controls, this paper finds that a higher degree of ethnic fractionalization is correlated with a higher unemployment rate. This is probably mainly because fractionalization reduces labor market efficiency.

Using data from 87 countries and the years 1980–2003, this paper empirically analyzes whether and to what extent economic freedom affects unemployment. According to the regression results, economic freedom is likely to substantially reduce unemployment, especially among women and young people....

This paper studies the effect of banking system concentration on unemployment in developing countries. Using data on 42 developing countries, it finds that more concentration increased unemployment over the period 1987–2007. The magnitude of the effect is substantial. The result is robust to...