The paper was produced as a background paper on labor issues for the UNDP study "Convergence to the European Union: Challenges and Opportunities." It first looks at the issue of how the labor market institutions of an acceding country like Macedonia should be shaped to further the integration of...

The importance of using natural experiments in economic research has long been recognized. Yet, it is only in recent years that natural experiments have become an integral part of the economist's analytical toolbox, thanks to the efforts of Meyer, Card, Peters, Krueger, Gruber, and others. This...

Das Beschäftigungsproblem betrifft neben 200 Millionen Arbeitslosen auch über 900 Millionen prekär Beschäftigte oder Working Poor. Um zur Lösung dieser Probleme beizutragen, müssen die Geber klare Zielsetzungen verfolgen und versuchen möglichen Zielkonflikten zu begegnen. Entscheidungen...

The importance of using natural experiments in economic research has long been recognized. Yet, it is only in recent years that natural experiments have become an integral part of the economist's analytical toolbox, thanks to the efforts of Meyer, Card, Peters, Krueger, Gruber, and others. This...

Under the Obama administration, the influence and involvement of trade unions in government policy decisions has surged to unprecedented levels. Some of the more egregious examples include the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which abolishes the secret ballot among workers deciding on union...

Recent research on the Great Depression emphasizes the role New Deal economic policy played in slowing recovery. Policies promoting cartels and higher wage rates during a time that the economy was experiencing unprecedented unemployment were likely to have created a negative supply shock that...

We compare winning and losing firms in lotteries for H-1B visas, matching administrative data on these lotteries to administrative tax data on U.S. firms and to approved U.S. patents. Winning one additional H-1B visa crowds out about 1.5 other workers at the firm. Additional H-1Bs have...

After the 2001 crisis, Argentina - once the poster-child for pro-market structural-adjustment policies - had to define a new strategy in order to manage the societal demands that had led to the fall of the previous administration. The demand by the majority of the population for employment...

Minimum wage policy is regarded as an essential policy tool for improving the welfare of low-paid workers and reducing working poverty and inequality within the labour market. The Government of India recently undertook reforms in the country's wage policy and enacted the Code on Wages in August...