This paper builds a macroeconomic model of equilibrium unemployment in which firms persistently face difficulties in selling their production and this affects their decisions to create jobs. Due to search-frictions on the product market, equilibrium unemployment is a U-shaped function of the...

The paper develops an overlapping generations model that highlights interactions between social security, unemployment and growth. The social security system has two components: old age pensions and unemployment insurance. Pensions have a direct effect on economic growth. Both pensions and...

How does technical progress affect long-term unemployment in a small open economy? This relationship is evaluated in an open neoclassical growth model that is extended by a Pissarides-style labor market matching approach. In the general equilibrium model, the labor market of the three factor...

When we analyse the labour market consequences of labour tax reforms in a model of firm-union wage bargaining, minor changes in the formulation of the union`s fallback option can have drastic effects. This paper compares two variants of the model in which either workers have no reemployment...

Employers who use temporary agency staff in contrast to regular staff are not affected by employment protection regulations when terminating a job. Therefore, services provided by temporary work agencies may be seen as a substitute for regular employment. In this paper, we analyze the effects of...

Our search model combines two search methods, the public employment service (PES) and random search. The separation rate is endogenous, the job matching process consists of three rounds. In the first and the second respectively the short-term (STU) and the long-term unemployed (LTU) randomly...

During the 1990s, temporary agency work has increased rapidly in most OECD countries. We augment the equilibrium unemployment model developed by Pissarides and Mortensen with temporary work agencies. Our model implies that technological improvements for placements and de-regulation of the sector...

A major issue in the current economic debate is related to the striking difference betweenEurope, Japan and US concerning the level and evolution of unemployment. This paperexplores the micro determinants of these observed stylized facts. In a first part, atheoretical framework is presented...