This paper investigates the role of institutions for labour market performance across European countries. As participation rates have been rather stable over the past, the unemployment problem is mainly caused by shortages in labour demand. Labour demand is expressed by its structural...

This paper uses an alternative approach to convergence analysis, which, in our opinion, is richer than those traditionally proposed. We believe that the evolution of the whole regional distribution is what matters, not that of an average or representative economy, implicit in the \kbe or \ksi...

The paper analyses the link between human capital and regional economic growth in the European Union. Using various indicators of human capital calculated from census microdata, we conclude that the recent economic performance of European regions is associated with an increase in overeducation....