The paper starts by presenting some stylised facts on youth unemployment over the last two decades, both at the euro area and the country level. It shows that despite declining considerably over the last few years, youth unemployment has remained at a high level relative to other age groups in...

Drawing on new empirical analysis of 30 years of structural reforms across the OECD, this paper sheds light on the impact of reforms over time, identifies the horizon over which their full effects materialise, and investigates whether such effects vary with prevailing economic conditions and...

Improving school-to-work transitions and ensuring better career opportunities for youth after labour market entrance are common goals in emerging and advanced economies as they can contribute to raising the productive potential of the economy and to increasing social cohesion. However, the...

Structural trends not directly related to labour market functioning and redistribution have made a sizeable contribution to inequality and poverty in Sweden, but occupy only limited space in the income inequality debate. To fill this gap, we put a quarter of a century of rising inequality in...

Labour share developments over the past two decades have differed widely across OECD countries, with about half of them experiencing significant declines. This paper analyses the role of public policies in shaping labour share developments across countries. The results suggest that...

Employment fosters equity and economic inclusiveness because those out of work face the highest risk of poverty, and it generates the tax receipts on which the social safety net depends. Further enhancing education and life-long learning would lower hurdles to employment, which are high for the...

Macro-simulations benchmarking employment in Finland to the Nordic average show that closing the large gaps in labour participation vis-à-vis the other Nordics across genders and age groups would boost employment significantly. Regressions on micro-data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills...

While small- and medium sized firms in Austria are generally more productive, export more, and engage more in higher technology activities than in comparable countries, they need to adapt better to the knowledge economy to maintain their relative performance levels. The capital structure of...

Der demographische Wandel gefährdet die langfristige Tragfähigkeit der öffentlichen Finanzen in Deutschland. Der Beitrag illustriert dies mit Hilfe langfristiger Simulationen der staatlichen Ausgaben für Alterssicherung, Gesundheit und Pflege, Arbeitslose sowie Bildung und Familien, die auf...

The strength of the German labour market response to the financial crisis of 2008-09 demonstrated the benefits of past labour market reforms, which raised work incentives, improved job matching and increased working hour flexibility. Going forward, the government should build on this success and...