This paper starts from the observation that despite their very high levels of unemployment, major European countries … have devoted few resources to reducing it. This suggests that there is little political concern about high unemployment. I …

employed to unemployment facilitates a reduction in the level of employment protection; that unemployment benefits are lower …, the more employment reacts to wages; and that a higher level of unemployment and a right-wing government slow down the …

This paper studies, in a model with unemployment, how labour market status affects the preferences for public spending … that high unemployment may destroy the existence of a voting equilibrium. …

We study a number of mechanisms through which an economy can be stuck at a high unemployment equilibrium because a poor … measures that have been undertaken to cure unemployment. The message of the paper is that curing the European unemployment …

We develop a general equilibrium analysis of the impact of active labour market policy on unemployment, wages and the … employed have little exposure to unemployment and if the demand for unskilled labour is inelastic, there may be political … support for policies which actually raise the equilibrium level of total unemployment. …

wages and unemployment that follow shocks (symmetric or asymmetric) which can occur in the economy. We show that wages will … labour market (and sometimes unemployment). An `age of diminished expectations' following any productivity shock is then …