Generous unemployment benefits lie at the heart of the conventional explanation for persistent high unemployment. The micro evidence suggests modest effects of changes in generosity, but there are reasons to doubt that the impacts on national unemployment rates are consequential. The authors...

It is widely accepted that global forces of technology and trade have caused a profound shift in labor demand towards the most highly skilled, generating sharply rising earnings inequality in flexible labor markets (the U.S.) and persistently high unemployment in rigid labor markets (Europe)....

Measured by changes in real wages, earnings inequality and unemployment, the economic position of lower skilled workers has declined sharply over the past two decades across the developed countries of the OECD. In this paper we survey a wide-ranging empirical literature for evidence bearing on...

Nearly one-third of all American workers are paid very low wages, the highest rate among wealthy nations. An incidence of low pay at this level has obvious implications for the current standard of living for a substantial share of American families. But of particular concern are the implications...

David R. Howell argues that the collapse of low-skill wages in the United States cannot be explained by a skill mismatch resulting from a technology-driven decline in the demand for low-skill labor. He presents evidence refuting the prevailing belief that a substantial shift in demand away from...