To the layperson, the upward trend in European unemployment is related to the slowdown in economic growth. We argue that the layperson’s view is correct. The increase in European unemployment and the slowdown in economic growth are related because they stem from a common cause: an excessively...

We develop a general equilibrium analysis of the impact of active labour market policy on unemployment, wages and the welfare of the employed. This framework is used to assess the political support in favour of such policies and to relate it to the working of such policies and other parameters...

In Portugal real wage flexibility, at the macroeconomic level, is noticeably higher, while unemployment duration is lower, when compared to Spain. This suggests that the hardship of being unemployed is higher in Portugal. Unemployment benefits and family insurance, which are the main buffer...

The paper examines the implications of an important aspect of the ongoing reorganization of work – the move from occupational specialization towards multi-tasking – for centralized wage bargaining. The analysis shows how, on account of this reorganization, centralized bargaining becomes...

Before the early 1970s generous welfare states seemed to be consistent with high employment. Since then, there has been growing concern over disincentive effects of social insurance. This paper suggests that the problem may have arisen in part because European nations were in effect trying to...

This paper describes an equilibrium labour market in which an unemployment benefit system cannot raise the average value of being unemployed in the long run. It proposes an alternative benefit system which pays generous benefit rates when unemployment is high, but pays much lower rates in booms....

While ageing is accepted as a major problem for most industrialized societies, its labour market consequences are not yet fully understood. This paper analyses the effects of changes in the age composition of the Federal Republic of Germany on the incidence of unemployment in different sex-age...

We develop a two-sector model in which technological progress alternatively raises the productivity of one sector after another. We assume that goods are <MI>complements<D> for the final consumers. The sector which benefits from technical progress will see a resulting <MI>fall in its price<D>. In this model,...</d></mi></d></mi>

Management and a union bargain sequentially, first choosing a contract which will later determine the level of employment, and those choosing a wage. The government then chooses an output subsidy, after which the industry chooses employment according to the contract. The presence of a natural...

This paper develops a matching model of the labour market under wage rigidity when hiring decisions are irreversible. There are two types of workers, the skilled and the unskilled. The model is used to analyse whether technological advances may have increased unemployment, and shows that this is...