This paper deals with the consequences of the existence of private employment agencies on the labor market. Using a matching framework, we study the conditions of existence of private employment agencies and the consequences of competition on the market for job placement. We show that the...

Official data indicate a much less severe impact of the international crisis on employment in Italy than might have been predicted. But the standard measure of unemployment agreed at international level has some shortcomings. Its “objective” definition of unemployment is a poor fit with the...

The share of non-regular employment has been increasing in many developed countries during the past two decades. The objective of this paper is to study a cause of the upward trend in non-regular employment by focusing on productivity growth. Data from Japan shows that productivity growth...

Die vorliegende Studie wurde im Arbeitsbereich "Sozialpolitik und Arbeitsmärkte" erstellt und im Mai 2008 abgeschlossen. Auftraggeber war das Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales. Gegenstand der Studie ist ein Performancevergleich von Arbeitsgemeinschaften (ARGEn) und zugelassenen...

We analyse the effects active labour market programmes (ALMPs) have on unemployment in a union wage-setting framework when search is endogenous. We assume that a union president, elected by majority voting determines the wage. We analyse the case where ALMPs increase match efficiency of the...

The analysis provides a new explanation for two widespread problems concerning European unemployment policy: the disappointingly small effect of many past reform measures on unemployment, and the political difficulties in implementing more extensive reform programs. We argue that the heart of...

Conventional measures of unemployment do not capture all dimensions of joblessness. A case in point is underemployment among employed workers, also frequently referred to as parttime unemployment. Workers in this category are employed during a survey week but are unable to work as many hours as...

We develop a theoretical model of firm dynamics and unemployment and characterize equilibria with tenure dependent separation taxes. The model is a version of the Lucas and Prescott island model with undirected search. Two equivalent decentralizations are considered: one with spot labor markets...

Previous research found that less accommodating caseworkers are more successful in placing unemployed workers into employment. This paper tries to shed more light on the causal mechanisms behind this result using semiparametric mediation analysis. Analysing very informative linked...