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Employment and Wage Adjustment in Euroland's Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Hofer, Helmut

    (Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna)

  • Pichelmann, Karl

    (EC, DG II Economic and Financial Affairs)

Abstract

The paper attempts to establish a few stylised facts about Euroland's labour market given the increasing importance of smoothly functioning markets in the EMU. We assemble econometric evidence regarding labour demand behaviour, wage-setting mechanisms and the cyclicality of unemployment in Euroland. We find that in the 1990s unemployment cyclicality has been higher in Euroland than in the US, while the opposite was true in the previous two decades. The main reason for this is to be found in Euroland's employment now responding much stronger to cyclical fluctuations in output than in the past, and even somewhat stronger than in the US. Thus, it appears rather implausible that overall too strict employment protection regulations can still offer a convincing explanation for a significant part of Euroland's problem of persistently high unemployment. There can be little doubt, however, that wage bargaining in Euroland continues to suffer from a serious insider-outsider problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Hofer, Helmut & Pichelmann, Karl, 1999. "Employment and Wage Adjustment in Euroland's Labour Market," Economics Series 76, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:76
    as

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    File URL: https://irihs.ihs.ac.at/id/eprint/1226
    File Function: First version, 1999
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084, Elsevier.
    2. André Sapir & Marco Buti, 1998. "Economic policy in EMU," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/8078, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hochreiter, Eduard & Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Winckler, Georg, 2002. "Monetary union: European lessons, Latin American prospects," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 297-321, December.
    2. Torben M. Andersen, 2003. "Wage formation and European integration," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 188, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    3. Julian Morgan & Annabelle Mourougane, 2005. "What Can Changes In Structural Factors Tell Us About Unemployment In Europe?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(1), pages 75-104, February.
    4. Paul J. J. Welfens, 2016. "Overcoming the euro crisis and prospects for a political union," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 59-103, January.
    5. Julian Morgan & Annabelle Mourougane, 2005. "What Can Changes In Structural Factors Tell Us About Unemployment In Europe?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(1), pages 75-104, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Wage-setting mechanisms; European Monetary Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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