Using the introduction of fixed long-term unemployment benefits in Germany in 2005 as a unique experiment we find strong evidence that lower unemployment benefit has an adverse effect on wages. We use panel data to identify and estimate the effect of this structural break. In western Germany the...

In this paper I evaluate the effects of a regional experiment that reduced payroll-taxes by 3-6 percentage points of the firm's wage sum in Northern and Eastern Finland. I estimate the effect of the payroll-tax reduction on firms' employment, wage sum and profits, and on workers hourly pay and...

The paper describes the dynamic features of the ICT sector today, through a comparison among countries of the evolving role of investments in R&D in ICT. 41 geographical areas are analysed: 28 European member states, the EU as a whole, the United States, Canada, Australia, five Asian countries...

In the seventies the policies of regional economic development in the OECD and in Europe were joined by the correction of economic (growth rates of GDP and income unbalanced) and technical differences and by inadequate allocations of human, financial, and infrastructural resources. Regional...

The revised Lisbon Strategy has decided upon an integrated programme of policy reforms envisaging the labor market in the context of globalization, demographic changes and fast technological progress, transposed into the integrated guidelines. Such reforms aimed at increasing the employment...

This research claims that investing European Union (EU) Structural Funds in Learning Mobility (LM) might lead to further regional polarization. LM is a type of labour mobility finalized to acquire new knowledge (human capital) and social networks (social capital). Historically, LM has been...