When unemployment rates reached double-digit levels in many OECD countries at the beginning of the 1990s, fighting … unemployment became the prime target of economic policy-making and a major focus of economic research1. The OECD (1994) launched a … major study - the OECD Jobs Study - which concluded "that the main factor underlying persistent high unemployment has been …

have boosted German competitiveness, resulting in higher exports, higher production and lower unemployment. This … explains the gains in competitiveness but increases unemployment and inequality, and the subsequent labour market reforms lower … unemployment by lessening the reservation wage and expanding the non-tradable sector. The model replicates the developments of the …