Istituzioni del mercato del lavoro e disoccupazione:un modello per l’analisi degli effetti delle politiche del lavoro sui livelli di disoccupazione nei paesi UE

The core question analyzed by Labour Market Institu tions (LMI) studies is to assess whether the diffusion of various types of rigidities (employment protection measures, the presence of Unions in work bargaining, minimum wages, generous unemployment benefits, etc.) has contributed to the growth of the persistently high level of unemployment observed in many OECD countries. In recent years, there has been a sharp divergence in trends in the unemployment rates. This divergence is usually explained by inefficiencies that originate in the labour market. This paper deals with the effects of labour market institutions on unemployment in a panel of 27 EU countries for the period 2000–2010, extending the range of LMI considered in empirical literature. Our novel contribution is the estimation of a panel model where we allow for heterogeneous effects of institutions on unemployment. The panel analysis includes a range of non standard variables referred to Public Employment Services policies (such as employment subsidies, job creati on schemes and training expenses), besides early retirement and unemployment benefits. The results of a set of tests show that there is no simple relationship between active policies and unemployment rates across countries. Nevertheless,our main conclusions are first, that on the average active policies referred to Public Employment Services decrease, whereas more generous unemployment subsidies increase unemployment, if there is a high level of labour productivity and secondly, tha t the magnitude of the effects of institutions differs considerably among countries.