A large body of empirical literature indicates that, contrary to predictions from economic theory, wages in the informal sector increase after any minimum wage hike. This phenomenon was so far explained as a byproduct of a signal conveyed by statutory minimum wages to wage setting in the...

It is often claimed that growing labor market imperfections and maladjustments can be blamed for the increase and persistence of unemployment in the Federal Republic of Germany. This paper attempts to marshall the empirical importance of these factors. Higher structural unemployment seems to be...

According to recent and largely untested theories, unemployment benefits (UBs) could improve the extent and quality of job reallocation even at the cost of increasing unemployment. Using yearly panel data from a large number of countries, we evaluate empirically the relationship between...