The persistence of mass unemployment in many OECD countries in the 1980s and 1990s has led to renewed interest in active labour market policies. We examine one such policy, a wage subsidy for employers hiring the long-term unemployed, using a search-theoretic framework. We assume that long-term...

Persistent high unemployment in Europe has led to renewed interest in Active Labour Market Policy. However, most existing theory suggests that its effects are ambiguous at best. We argue that job search assistance and wage subsidies are more appropriately modelled as a transition rather than the...

The paper re-examines the issue of the appropriate unit for measuring output in cost utility analysis and the technique that will measure it. There are two main themes. The first is that utility, as it is often conceived and quantified, is not an appropriate basis for measurement. Consequently,...