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Economic policies and unemployment dynamics in Europe /
Over the last two decades, there has been a market and persistent increase in unemployment in many Western European countries. Joblessness has risen with every cyclical downturn, but has failed to decline back to its prerecession levels during the subsequent economic recoveries, leading to a gradual...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
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| Otros Autores: | , |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
[Washington, D.C., U.S.A.] :
International Monetary Fund,
1996.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
| Sumario: | Over the last two decades, there has been a market and persistent increase in unemployment in many Western European countries. Joblessness has risen with every cyclical downturn, but has failed to decline back to its prerecession levels during the subsequent economic recoveries, leading to a gradual ratcheting up of the unemployment rate. The high unemployment that now prevails is most of Western Europe has many costs: forgone output, loss of human capital, and a heavy burden on the public finances. From the perspective of the IMF, another important concern would be that a failure to solve the problems in European labor markets might eventually undermine the present commitment to sound monetary and fiscal policies. While a return to the more active macroeconomic policies of the past would be met with no enduring success in reducing unemployment, it would significantly increase economic and financial instability. The studies in this volume attempt to advance the understanding of the relationship between economic policies and the dynamics of unemployment in five large European countries within a common methodological framework, in the hope of contributing to the design of policies aimed at durably reducing unemployment. While the studies generally confirm earlier findings of a link between unemployment and policies that increase labor market often rigidities and blunt incentives, they also highlight the fact that the labor market often responds to changes in policies with a surprisingly long lag. Thus, both the detrimental effects of increasing labor market rigidities, and the beneficial effects of reducing them, typically take a considerable time to make themselves felt. We believe that in the public debate on policies to reduce unemployment, a greater awareness of these lags would help to shift the focus away from "quick fixes" and toward a more patient and steady approach to implementing labor market reforms. |
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| Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (vii, 216 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references. |
| ISBN: | 9781455294091 1455294098 |