The common view that far-reaching labour market deregulation is the only remedy for high European unemployment is too simplistic. First, the ecidence suggests that deeply rooted social customs are an important cause of wage rigidity, going beyonf the legal constraints emphasized in the political...

This study reports the results from a repeat survey among managers in Swedish manufacturing, designed to explore how a severe and prolonged macroeconomic shock affects wage rigidity and unemployment. Our second survey was conducted in 1998, when the unemployment rate was much higher, and the...

Two features distinguish European and US labor markets. First, most European countries have substantially more generous unemployment insurance. Second, the duration of unemployment and employment spells are substantially higher in Europe - employment turnover is lower. We show that...

The paper examines the implications of an important aspect of the ongoing reorganization of work - the move from occupational specialization toward multi-tasking - for centralized wage bargaining. The analysis shows how, on account of this reorganization, centralized bargaining becomes...

The paper analyses various mechanism through which monetary union in Euroep may affect unemployment. The focus is on the political incentives for labour-market reform. There will be more reform outside than inside the EMU to the extent that a national inflation bias can be reduced. But if there...

This paper investigates the consequences of labour supply changes in the OECD countries in the last decades. It is argued that changes in supply cannot be thought as homogenous: these changes involve more young and more adult female workers, that are complement with skilled men and substitute...

The author studies the role of unemployment in the context of the endogenous formation of a monocentric city where firms set efficiency wages to deter shirking.