This paper compares indicators of the Croatian labor market and implemented policies with indicators and policies in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Although unemployment and long-term unemployment (which latter is particularly correlated with poverty in the transition countries) do not in Croatia depart from the range in which other transition countries are positioned, still they are above their average, which is connected with the somewhat less flexible nature of the Croatian labor market. New findings on the effects of labor market policies in the transition countries indicate that the process of the reform of the institutional framework through which in the last few years the restrictiveness of Croatian employment protection legislation has been reduced might work in the direction of reducing overall and long-term unemployment. The paper suggests that it is possible to improve the effectiveness of the application of active policy measures. Furthermore, a better compensation for a reduction in the restrictiveness of the regulations would probably be an increase in average unemployment benefits rather than an extension of their duration, while greater labor market flexibility, resulting from the reforms, should contribute to a greater coverage of unemployed persons. The expected reduction of overall and long-term unemployment under the influence of the new institutional framework, in spite of the possible emergence of low-paid and insecure jobs, might alleviate the problem of poverty, because unemployment and, especially, long-term unemployment are among the prime causes of poverty in the transition countries.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Find related papers by JEL classification: I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Did you know? You can include your works in the database easily by uploading them on the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA) if you do not have access to an institutional RePEc archive.