This Working Paper critically analyses Italy's labour market reforms of 2012 (Fornero Reform). It focuses especially on a measure to cut unemployment and labour-market dualism by reducing the protection against dismissal enjoyed by permanent employees.The main argument of this paper is that...

This working paper looks at recent structural reforms of the Spanish labour market and evaluates them against the government's stated objectives to reduce unemployment.It concludes that the labour market flexibilisation approach has not helped to reduce unemployment, nor has it contributed to...

This Working Paper investigates links between employment changes and both sectoral developments and changes in earnings levels in six EU member states. The paper challenges the view that a remedy focusing on reducing employment protection and pay levels leads to higher levels of employment. It...