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A Picture of European Unemployment: Success and Failure

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Stephen Nickell

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Abstract

Average unemployment in Europe today is relatively high compared with OECD countries outside Europe. The majority of countries in Europe today have lower unemployment than any OECD country outside Europe, including the US. These two fa cts are consistent because the four largest countries in Continental Western Europe namely, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, (the Big Four), have very high unemployment and most of the rest have comparatively low unemployment. This variability is highly informative because the fifteen European countries which we consider have more or less independent labour markets in practice,despite 'free' movement of labour. Using this information we see how changes in the structure of the various labour markets explain a substantial proportion of the secular fluctuations in unemployment in the various countries. In particular, we pin down some of the particular factors which enable us to understand why some European countries have been able fully to recover from the unemployment disasters of the early 1980s whereas some have not.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp0577.

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Date of creation: Jul 2003
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0577

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Keywords: unemployment; institutions;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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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.:
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Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Getinet Astatike Haile, 2004. "Re-employment hazard of displaced German workers: evidence from the GSOEP," Working Papers 000284, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jian-Ping Zhou, 2006. "Reforming Employment Protection Legislation in France," IMF Working Papers 06/108, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  3. Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 2004. "Labor Market Institutions, Wages, and Investment," NBER Working Papers 10735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. James Banks & R Disney & Alan Duncan & John Van Reenen, 2004. "The Internationalisation of Public Welfare Policy," CEP Discussion Papers dp0656, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Ron Smith & Gylfi Zoega, 2004. "Global Shocks and Unemployment Adjustment," DEGIT Conference Papers c009_003, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Carlos J. Rodriguez-Fuentes & Antonio Olivera-Herrera & David Padron-Marrero, 2004. "Monetary policy and inflation persistence in the Eurozone," ERSA conference papers ersa04p218, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
  7. van Ours, Jan C., 2003. "Has the Dutch Miracle Come to an End?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  8. Ours, J.C. van, 2003. "Has the Dutch miracle come to an end?," Discussion Paper 32, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  9. Stephen Nickell, 2003. "Poverty and Worklessness in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0579, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Ron Smith & Gylfi Zoega, 2005. "Unemployment, Investment and Global Expected Returns: A Panel FAVAR Approach," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 0524, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics. [Downloadable!]
  11. Bernard Bartels, 2009. "The Monetary Transmission Mechanism in the Euro Area: A VAR-Analysis for Austria and Germany," Kiel Advanced Studies Working Papers 452, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  12. Anna, BATYRA & Henri R., SNEESSENS, 2007. "Selective Reductions in Labour Taxation : Labour Market Adjustments and Macroeconomic Performance," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2007001, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Azmat, Ghazala & Manning, Alan & Van Reenen, John, 2007. "Privatization, Entry Regulation and the Decline of Labour's Share of GDP: A Cross-Country Analysis of the Network Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 6348, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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