Leading international economists examine the different patterns and long-term trends behind persistent unemployment across Western Europe in light of recent developments in labor market theory. Structural unemployment, or persistently high levels of unemployment that do not follow the ups and downs of a typical business cycle, varies significantly across industrialized countries. In this CESifo volume, leading labor economists analyze the widely diverging patterns of long-term unemployment across Western Europe. Drawing on recent developments in labor market theory and macroeconomics to explain the emergence and persistence of unemployment, the studies look for fundamental explanations and common patterns that might lead to policy solutions.The two opening chapters offer overviews of the problem: European labor market expert Stephen Nickell highlights the unemployment situation in the "Big Four" continental European states of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and American economist Edmund S. Phelps focuses on new theoretical approaches that examine institutional factors influencing unemployment in a given country. Following these introductory essays, prominent economists consider the experiences of their home countries, in chapters on Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. By taking advantage of the richness of research conducted at a national level and making the work accessible to an international audience, this volume contributes to a new understanding of structural unemployment and how it can be overcome through labor market reforms and other economic policy measures. Contributors Torben Andersen, Samuel Bentolila, Norbert Berthold, Guiseppe Bertola, Rainer Fehn, Pietro Garibaldi, Bertil Holmlund, Juan F. Jimeno, Erkki Koskela, Stephen J. Nickell, Jan C. van Ours, Edmund S. Phelps, Jean Pisany-Ferry, Christopher Pissarides, Roope Uusitalo, Brendan Walsh, Martin Werding

The peristence of European unemployment stands in striking contrast to the cyclical pattern of unemployment in the US. Many people attribute the rise in European unemployment to increased imbalances between the pattern of labour demand and supply - in other words, to greater mismatch, but existing mismatch indicators do not support this view. However, the obvious inference is not legitimate because the evidence is based on trended data, and thus gives rise to spurious statistical results. To get around the problem, the author uses the dynamic flow approach to structural unemployment and disaggregated data. The reader will find new results on "non-spurious" mismatch tendencies, occupational reallocation, the matching of apprentices, and the importance of matching and mobility for wage differentials.

Conference report on unemployment in USA, Western Europe and Japan - reviews employment policy, impact of international trade and economic recession, effects of trade between the USA and developing countries on us employment, gives macroeconomic analysis of structural unemployment, inflation and labour demand in Germany, federal Republic, covers labour market segmentation and discrimination, income distribution and labour supply, and work sharing in Japan. Bibliographys, graphs and statistical tables. ILO mentioned. Conference held in bischenberg 1980?

The problem of mass unemployment in western Europe has persisted since the early 1980s. Clearly the policies implemented by national governments and the EU have not been successful in adequately tackling this important social, economic and political issue. The New Politics of Unemployment provides a thorough comparative analysis of the present situation. It looks at how the orthodox unemployment policies of contemporary governments have failed and what new policies might be introduced. A number of radical unemployment policies, from Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and the EU, are outlined. These are investigated with a view to identifying the conditions under which they might become standard components of national and EU strategies to bring down unemployment. This book is the first comparative study of the politics of policy innovation in the area of unemployment. It will be an important addition to the literature of European public policy and important reading for students of comparative European politics and economics.

Changes in economic systems provide a rare opportunity to redesign basic institutional structures in labor markets. This paper attempts to provide guidance for such institutional choice by drawing on the findings of recent labor market research in market economies on the links between institutional structure and labor market performance. After considering the suitability of research from market economies for the labor market problems faced by economies in transition from central planning, the paper considers the effects of alternative institutions for wage determination (collective bargaining structures and minimum wage and indexation legislation), employment security, income security, and active labor market policy.

By an international forum of contributors, this is the result of a conference organized by the Department of Economics of the University of Limburg and the European Production Study Group. All aspects of labour market research were discussed relating them to the unemployment situation in Europe.