Long-term unemployment in the varieties of capitalism

This paper considers how the different varieties of capitalism affect the rate of long-term unemployment. The liberal market variety, where employment protection is the lowest, presents lower rates of long-term unemployment than the continental European, or the Mediterranean varieties. In the latter both employment protection and long-term unemployment are the highest and labour market participation the lowest. But the social-democratic Scandinavian variety gets the best of both worlds: low rates of long-term unemployment, high rates of labour participation, lower degree of inequality, together with relatively high levels of employment protection. Low rates of long-term unemployment and high levels of labour participation are also produced by the far-Eastern Asian variety, but at the cost of a markedly dualistic labour market structure.