This brief reviews the evolution of the US and the European labour markets since the beginning of the financial crisis. In the US, the unemployment rate and the share of long-term unemployment grew very fast, during the crisis, thereby reaching levels close to those in the EU. Does that mean...

Within a two-step GARCH framework we explore the linkages between equity returns of ten sectors in the euro area, the United States and Japan, respectively. Our estimation framework allows a distinction to be made between spillover effects originating from one of the three currency areas and...

This paper examine differences between risk-neutral and objective probability densities of future interest rates. The identification and quantification of these differences are important when risk-neutral densities (RNDs), such as option-implied RNDs, are used as indicators of actual beliefs of...

This annual review highlights the most significant developments that took place in industrial relations in the EU Member States and Norway in 2009, both at national and EU level. It first sets out the political context, then goes on to examine levels of coverage of collective bargaining, and...

With a particular focus on the crisis and responses to it, this annual review highlights developments in working conditions and industrial relations in the EU Member States and Norway in 2010, both at national and EU level. At national level, the report examines key issues covered by collective...

This report examines some of the ways in which the social partners have been involved in anticipating and managing change – namely, through their establishment or close participation in ‘transitional agencies’ and other structures set up to minimise the negative consequences of...

ProAct is a £48 million programme launched by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in response to the economic crisis. Through social partner engagement, the Welsh Assembly Government developed and implemented the ProAct initiative in a matter of two to three months with the aim of helping...

This case study looks at the way in which the Plansee Group in Austria has sought to ensure a ‘soft landing’ for employees affected by the global economic downturn. Having seen a collapse in demand in 2008, primarily in the parts of its business supplying metal products to the ailing vehicle...

We evaluate the Friedman-Schwartz hypothesis that a more accommodative monetary policy could have greatly reduced the severity of the Great Depression. To do this, we first estimate a dynamic, general equilibrium model using data from the 1920s and 1930s. Although the model includes eight...