Soll die Zahl der Arbeitslosen in Deutschland verringert werden, müssen die Arbeitskosten deutlich gesenkt werden. Doch die historisch gewachsene Einkommensverteilung lässt sich nicht antasten, ohne den sozialen Konsens zwischen Beziehern von Arbeitseinkommen und Beziehern von Kapitaleinkommen...

Most people accept that structural and labour market reforms are needed in Europe. However few have been undertaken. The usual conjecture is that reforms are costly in economic performance and costly to finance. Blanchard and Giavazzi (2003) and Spector (2004) develop a general equilibrium model...

Using a newly constructed macroeconometric model for Germany and the rest of the Euro area, we investigate the macroeconomic effects of structural labor market reforms in Germany. We find that neither the fact that Germany can no longer pursue an independent monetary policy nor the possibility...