Germany, as most other European countries, has been plagued by a persistently high level of long-term unemployment … since the early 1980's. In contrast, long-term unemployment is much less of a problem in the United States. One potential … reason for the different structure of unemployment relates to institutional differences in unemployment compensation systems …

for the dramatic decline in employment and the unprecedented increase in unemployment in the east German economy. …

Although explanations of the persistence of high unemployment in Germany, in particular long-term unemployment, have …, these factors are analyzed based on a microeconometric model of individual transitions from unemployment into employment and … dependence" arising from causal factors and "sorting" effects due to unobserved heterogeneity in the unemployment pool. I also …