Between 1990 and 1992 in Slovenia, recipients of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits tended to remain (formally) unemployed until their benefits expired, before taking a job. Institutional set-up suggests, and labor surveys show, that many of the recipients were actually working while...

One of the most conspicuous consequences of the transition of former socialist economies has been the emergence of large-scale, open unemployment - a phenomenon unheard of before the transition. These economies have thus been confronted with the difficult task of protecting the unemployed while...

This report examines the two most common programs that provide cash compensation to unemployed workers: unemployment insurance (UI) and unemployment assistance (UA). It compares them in two areas: costs and labor market disincentives. The cost analysis first derives a framework for examining...

The objectives of this paper are : (i) to empirically probe on the validity of the hypothesis that wages are relatively unresponsive to labor market disequlibrium; and (ii) to investigate whether the dramatically diverse rates of unemployment observed across certain Latin American countries obey...

Transition economies have introduced a range of OECD active labor market policies to combat unemployment - albeit often on paper only, as with rising unemployment passive policies have crowded out active ones. But even in the Czech Republic, active labor market policies have contributed only...

Sri Lanka has had double-digit unemployment rates for more than a decade.And by 1990, 85 percent of the unemployed had spent more than a year searching for a job. Rama analyzes whether high unemployment rates and long spells of unemployment are the result of profuse legislation of the labor...

Registered unemployment in Russia is now 2 percent; surveys indicate a true rate of between 5 and 6 percent. Until now, flow in and out of unemployment have been quite large, with duration low. This may be changing as the ease with which workers are matched to jobs declines -- in part because of...

The author analyzes the status and development of Turkey's labour market since 1962. He states that the estimated steady upward trend in unemployment since 1962 (to 12.7 % in 1985) may be misleading. Cyclical short term changes have been important. Unemployment was most likely declining in the...

Latvia has recorded sustained GDP and productivity growth since 1997. Yet unemployment rates, despite gradual decrease, have remained high. The paper explores the mysteries of unemployment in Latvia. It analyzes labor flows between employment, unemployment, and nonparticipation and finds the...

Sri Lanka's high unemployment rate has been attributed to a mismatch of skills, to queuing for public sector jobs, and to stringent job security regulations. But the empirical evidence supporting these explanations is weak. The author takes a fresh look at the country's unemployment problem,...