Based on a modified spatiotemporal autoregressive (STAR) model, we analyze whether borders still constitute significant impediments to labor market integration in the European Union, despite the formal law of free movement of labor. Using regional data from the EU-15 countries over 21 years, we...

Open labour markets are often seen as a precondition for innovation, particularly for new industries. However, this view ignores two core findings of the economic systems literature: first, that mobility patterns are institutional microsystems that need to be complementary to other institutions...

We show that the severance pay scheme can serve as bond and improve the welfare. When the authority appropriately adjudges the worker's effort, the increase in a severance payment reduces the shirker''s expected benefit, so that the severance pay works as a bond, which is warranted by the authority.

Despite rapid economic growth, gender disparities in women’s economic participation have remained deep and persistent in India. What explains these gender disparities? Is it poor infrastructure, limited education, or the composition of the labor force and industries? Or is it deficiencies in...

Using the analytical tools of New Institutional Economics it can be shown that efficient employment protection should be differentiated according to the amount and kind of the worker's investment in human capital. Hence, employment protection serves different purposes in different cases. A...

Before the great recession of 2008–2009, the “flexicurity” model (with flexibility for firms to adjust their labor force along with income security for workers through the social safety net) attracted attention for its ability to deliver low unemployment. But how did it fare during the...

The implications of on-the-job search and learning-by-doing of young workers are studied in a search-matching model. The labor market is segmented in two sub-markets: that of beginners, and that of experienced workers offering higher wages. After a long enough employment spell, beginners can...

Older people in developed countries are living longer and healthier lives. A prolonged and healthy mature period of life is often associated with continued and active participation in the labor market. At the same time, active grandparents can offer their working offspring a free, flexible, and...

Long-term unemployment in Romania has grown in both absolute and relative terms in the last few years, leading to increased expenditures, both absolutely and in relation to unemployment benefits, for the support allowance and social assistance programs and for pensions to labor force drop-outs....

A proper picture of the Czech labour market emerges by focusing on its nuanced details from various perspectives. First we focus on the specific phases of the labour market as it developed in the 1990s. Second, we observe the changing composition of the labour force and labour mobility. Third,...