In the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis, proposals to share the risk of unemployment shocks have been high on the political agenda. Welfare states have built-in automatic stabilisers to cushion economic shocks, notably unemployment insurance. The argument with regard to the Eurozone is that a...

The European Commission proposes a pan-European support for short-time work arrangements (SURE). This column discusses the relationship between this proposal and the idea of a European unemployment re-insurance scheme, to which the Commission also refers in its Communication on SURE. We sketch...

Labour mobility in the EU is comparatively low, despite major efforts from the European Institutions to support cross-border mobility. This study evaluates the potential implications of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme (EUBS) for labour mobility in the EU. We find that the introduction of...

The European Unemployment Benefit Schemes (EUBS) analysed within this study are a fiscal stabilization mechanism whose primary objective is to smooth income over the business cycle. It would complement, and possibly reinforce private risk sharing mechanisms, and thus provide a potential tool to...

Societies and economies are experiencing deep and intertwined structural changes that may unsettle the perceptions European citizens have of their economic and employment security. Such labour-market perceptions are likely in turn to alter people's political positions. For instance, those...

This paper has been written in preparation of a research project funded by the European Commission (on the Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme, contract VC/2015/0006). This paper adds information and detailed analysis to the following deliverable of that...

In this paper, we study eight countries in which the regulation of unemployment benefits and related benefits (notably social assistance for able-bodied adults) and the concomitant activation of unemployed individuals has a multi-tiered architecture. We assess their experiences and try to...

In this paper, we study eight countries in which the regulation of unemployment benefits and related benefits (notably social assistance for able-bodied adults) and the concomitant activation of unemployed individuals has a multi-tiered architecture. We assess their experiences and try to...