The paper analyses the social protection systems of the Baltic States comparing them to the existing systems of the other European countries and discussing poverty reduction strategies, pension systems, social and unemployment assistance, labour market policies and regulations. The aim is to...

This Regional Input is a supplement to Ezoneplus Working Paper No. 13 on the Social Dimension of the Eastward Enlargement of the Eurozone. Political transition from authoritarian to democratic society has been extensive in all three Baltic States. The Baltic States are often examined together in...

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union and the requirements of the European Monetary Union call for increased flexibility of labour markets in both the current EU members and candidate countries. If labour markets and institutions are rigid in the monetary union, market disequilibrium is...

In the paper potential output of four Central and East European countries is estimated using the Cobb-Douglas production function. Estonian production function uses data of employment, sectoral restructuring, estimated capital stock and foreign direct investments. Capital stock and level of...

The implications of the Estonian labor market policy reforms, such as changes to the minimum wage, social benefits and tax allowance, will be analysed using a simple applied general equilibrium model. The model used in the paper is from Bovenberg et al (2000), with the addition of an efficiency...

In Estonia, as in several other EU acceding countries, minimum wage has been on an upward trend and in the coming years it will expectedly be raised faster than the average wage. Despite its rapid increase, the impact of the minimum wage on Estonian labour market has not been analysed. The...

The paper presents empirical estimations of the equilibrium exchange rate of the Estonian kroon. The behavioural equilibrium exchange rate (BEER) approach is used to analyse the dynamics of the real effective exchange rate in the time period from 1995 to 2002. The estimates range from a 15%...

This paper analyses the factors determining reservation wages in Estonia, and estimates the influence of the reservation wage on unemployment duration. According to estimations there is no statistically significant effect of unemployment benefit and social assistance on the reservation wage in...

In the paper the impact of changes in social benefits and taxes on Estonian labor market will be analysed using a simple computable general equilibrium model. The model used in the paper is from Bovenberg et al. (2000), with the addition of an efficiency wage part based on Shapiro and Stiglitz...

The current paper analyses unemployment and labour movements between labour market statuses in the period of January 1997 to July 2000 using data from the Estonian Labour Force Surveys. The paper is motivated by the hypothesis that in the beginning of transition in Estonia high labour mobility...