[EN] This paper considers the estimation of the effect of vocational education on the probability of employment using Spanish data from the linked Active Population Survey (EPA) since 1992 to 1997. After allowing for possible sample-selection bias and heteroskedasticity in estimation, only...

The objective of this study is to gain insight in which organisation-specific information job seekers attach importance to, in order to determine whether they fit in an organisation. Our labour market is facing difficulties with inflow of labour forces. On the one hand our tight labour market...

This paper demonstrates that cyclical and chaotic planning solutions are possible in the standard textbook model of search and matching in labor markets. More specifically, it takes a discretetime adaptation of the continuous-time matching economy described in Pissarides (1990, 2001), and...

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience...

Belgium has effected a remarkable fiscal adjustment, best illustrated by the decline in its public debt. While benefiting from an appreciable decline in interest rates, most of the underlying consolidation reflected a considerable increase in the tax burden, one of the highest in the...

This Selected Issues paper examines conditions in Colombian labor markets, which present a big challenge to the country. At end-2004, the unemployment rate amounted to 12 percent, and about one-third of the labor force was considered underemployed. The paper reviews labor market developments...

The Danish flexicurity model has attracted attention among policymakers in Europe, because it suggests that a flexible labor market can coexist with a generous welfare system to achieve low unemployment. Using a panel of 19 countries over 1960-2002, the paper identifies the elements of the...

Over the last 15 years, the reforms of employment protection legislation (EPL) in European countries have mainly eased hiring and firing restrictions for temporary employment while leaving the strict EPL provisions for regular or permanent contracts unchanged. Recent reforms in France follow...