This paper analyzes the evolution of regional unemployment rates, wages, participation rates, migration and employment in seven candidate countries for accession to the European Union (EU) in the 1990's. We compare these countries to a core set of EU member states and find persistent regional...

The paper argues that economic integration causes problems for the labor market of high-wage countries due to cross-border labor mobility and the accompanying increase in labor supply. Empirical evidence is provided from an analysis of regional labor market effects of German re-unification. In...