This paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship (as measured by fluctuations in the business ownership rate) and unemployment in Japan for the period between 1972 and 2002. We find that, although Japan’s unemployment rate has been influenced by specific exogenous shocks, the...

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in <A HREF="http://people.few.eur.nl/vanderzwan/articles/Regional%20Studies%20Ladder%20Europe%20US.pdf">'Regional Studies'</A>, 2013, Volume 47, issue 5, pages 803-825.<P> We investigate which countries have the highest potential to achieve entrepreneurial progress. This progress is defined using an entrepreneurial ladder with five successive steps:...</p></a>

There is growing evidence that social pressure shapes firms' behavior. Given how sensitive communities are to downsizing, this suggests that firms are likely to be under strong social pressure when considering reducing employment. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social...

Following the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT), firms may react to increasing skill requirements either by training or hiring the new skills, or a combination of the two.Using matched datasets with about 1,000 French plants, we assess the relative importance of these...

Although many developing countries have experienced an increase in the relative demand for skilled workers leading to a rise in wage inequality, the role played by trade in this trend remains a matter of debate. Using a firm-level database covering manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors in...

The impact of trade reforms on the labor market may transit through many channels. One of these is the effect on labor demand elasticity emphasized by Rodrik (1997). No consensus has been established yet in the empirical literature regarding this relationship. This paper attempts to extend the...

To investigate the relationships between new technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age structure of the workforce we start from a classical labour-demand framework, assuming that the cost function is a restricted translog. Since we are interested in age effects, the only variable...