Welfare states can be reformed successfully, and popular support for reforms can be maintained. But this requires an internally consistent package of labor market, fiscal, and product market reforms, including some kind of buy-in, through, for example, tax cuts. Empirical analysis combined with a select number of case studies-comprising Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom-reveals that successful reformers focused on increasing labor supply through benefit reform, lowering tax wedges, and lowering government consumption. At the same time, greater labor supply translated into employment growth more effectively in the presence of liberal labor and product markets.

By looking at 20 reform efforts in ten OECD countries, this report examines why some reforms are implemented and other languish.

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience interested in economic policy issues. This Web-only series replaced Staff Position Notes in January 2011.

The Spanish labor market is not working: the unemployment rate is structurally very high; wages are not very responsive to labor market conditions, causing a high cyclicality of unemployment; and the labor market is highly dual. Compared with the EU15, Spanish labor market institutions and policies stand out by the structure of its collective bargaining, which occurs mostly at an intermediate level, and by very high severance payments for permanent workers. Based on a quantitative analysis, the paper shows that moving away from the intermediate level of bargaining would go a long way toward bringing the unemployment rate closer to the EU15 average. The key reform needed to reduce the share of temporary workers is reducing employment protection of permanent workers. Substantially reforming the collective bargaining system and reducing the protection of permanent workers are likely to be highly complementary to secure a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate. The recent 2010 labor market reform attempts to address these issues, although its effects are still to materialize.

Foreword TAKE 2016 is a dream that came true. In about six months, a group of friends and colleagues put together in an upcoming and very dynamic university a conference with 9 streams, 3 keynotes, and 3 special sessions. 60 papers presented, 6 posters and around 80 participants from 20 countries. This is awesome! I would like to deeply thank Aveiro University, the GOVCOPP research centre, the conference committee, the keynote speakers, the special session convenors, the stream leaders, the reviewers, the authors, and the administrative people for all their work and support. I want to have two special words one for Blazenka Knezevic without whom the website would not have been possible, the other for Gaby Neumann for work in these Proceedings. Scientifically, TAKE seems to be as important and new and far reaching. We don’t have shortage of models regarding the knowledge economy but we decisively lack to explore the relation between theory and practice. TAKE is a step in exploring that difference. We know that “Exact sciences find the best answers and social sciences give the best questions” (J.C. Spender) and we also know that “Knowledge Management is more preached by scholars than done by practitioners” (Aino Kianto). We assume the first idea and try to overcome the second. Hopefully TAKE 2016 will be a great success. Thank you for everything.

This book presents a selection of contributions on the timely topic of structural reforms in Western economies, written by experts from central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and leading universities. It includes latest research on the impacts of structural reforms on the market economy, especially on the labor market, and investigates the results of collective bargaining in theory and practice. The book also comprises case studies of structural reforms. A literature survey on the topic serves as a valuable source for further research. The book is written by and targeted at both academics and policy makers.