A policy proposal is to abolish the distinction between regular open-end employment contracts and fixed-term contracts and substitute a unique labour contract with a degree of employment protection increasing with tenure. A question on the desirability of the "contrat unique" was included in the...

This paper aims to shed light on the role of the ’ideology’ of political parties in shaping the evolution of the welfare state in 18 developed democracies, by providing empirical findings on the determinants of social programs entitlements and social spending over the period 1981-1999. The...

This paper presents a model allowing to analyze voting, welfare institutions and economic performance. We consider a political economy framework with three classes of agents: entrepreneurs, employed workers and unemployed workers. Agents vote on alternative institutional options: the degree of...

This paper is a contribution to the debate on policy complementarity in relation to deregulation in the product and labour markets. We develop a model of dynamic efficiency wages and monopolistic competition. Whereas most of the literature points toward the gains associated to an increase in...

The aim of this article is to analyse the consequences of some structural reforms on the institutional coherence of OECD countries, particularly Continental Europe, and on their economic performance, particularly employment. Because institutions in developed political economies are interrelated...

The paper presents the main results and conclusion of the European project ESEMK (FP6, Priority 7) discussing the variety of capitalism within the European Union (2004-08). In Part 1 is abstracted the methodological framework, articulating the macro levels (diversity of socio-economic models or...

This paper proposes a model of industrial innovation linked to financial liberalisation where agents are characterised by heterogeneous innovative abilities. Individual researchers may either be employed by a large firm and work together on the firm's innovative project, or they may...

Hysteresis is one of the main concepts used in Layard, Nickell and Jackman's book, Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. Attempts to clarify the concept of hysteresis, from its formal representation to its empirical applications. Emphasizes the idea that hysteresis...