In this paper, I study the political rationale for labor market regulation. Oligopolists employ raw labor and human capital (i.e. key workers) for production and R&D. There are many jurisdictions, in each of which a self-interested policy maker can regulate/deregulate the local labor market. I...

This paper examines the effect of monopolistic labour unions' behaviour on governments' incentives to undertake labour market reform, inside and outside a symmetric and an asymmetric monetary union (MU). Incentives for reform are increased inside the MU when governments and labour unions move...

This paper examines the effect of monopolistic labour unions' behavior on governments' incentives to undertake labour market reform, inside and outside a symmetric and an asymmetric monetary union (MU). Incentives for reform are increased inside the MU when governments and labour unions move...

While trade unions have been studied in detail, there is virtually no economics research on employer associations (EAs), trade unions' counterparts in many countries. However, besides conducting collective bargaining, EAs perform several other activities that can in uence economic outcomes,...

After steady employment growth since the 1990s, Spain has experienced the sharpest increase in unemployment among OECD countries during the crisis, amplified by structural problems of the labour market. Very high de facto severance payment of permanent contracts has resulted in a rigid dual...

This study provides an assessment of the features that, operating "inside the black box", shapes the evolution of the Italian economy. In the first section the focus is placed on the functioning of the labour market at the aggregate level. The picture described suggests that the Italian labour...

What is the role played by collective bargaining in the regulation of the labour market in the context of European integration? What are the current developments in that role? Building on research conducted in the fifteen countries of the European Union since 1998, this article examines the...

This paper evaluates counselling programmes in an equilibrium matching model where workers are heterogeneous in skill levels. Job search effort, labour demand and wages are endogenous. When wages are bargained over, raising the effectiveness of or the access to counselling programmes pushes...

Recent research documents mounting evidence for sizable and persistent biases in individual labor market expectations. This paper incorporates subjective expectations into a general equilibrium labor market model and studies the implications of biased expectations for wage bargaining, vacancy...