November 1999 - Unemployment in Sri Lanka is largely voluntary. The underlying problem is not a shortage of jobs but the artificial gap between good jobs and bad ones. Policy efforts should be aimed at reducing the gap between good and bad jobs by making product markets more competitive,...

Does the public sector overpay or underpay workers relative to what they could earn in the private sector? Usual comparisons focus on similar jobs, but in a Developing country it is more sensible to focus on similar workers, as shown by the case of Vietnam