Structural Unemployment in Luxembourg: Bad Luck or Rational Choice?

Structural Unemployment in Luxembourg: Bad Luck or Rational Choice? PDF Author: William Gbohoui
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513519999
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
This paper combines both micro and macro approaches to identify the drivers of (un)employment and inactivity in Luxembourg. The young, low-skilled, and non-EU migrants are found to be the most vulnerable groups in the labor market. In addition to skills mismatches, work disincentives embedded in the tax-benefit system constitute a factor explaining structural unemployment. High unemployment of young and low-skilled workers reflects substantial unemployment traps, while disincentives for second earners (respectively the generosity of the pension system) contribute to lower labor market participation of women (respectively seniors). Further reduction of structural unemployment requires better integration of vulnerable groups into the labor market and improved targeting of benefits to make work more rewarding.

Hysteresis and Business Cycles

Hysteresis and Business Cycles PDF Author: Ms.Valerie Cerra
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513536990
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Traditionally, economic growth and business cycles have been treated independently. However, the dependence of GDP levels on its history of shocks, what economists refer to as “hysteresis,” argues for unifying the analysis of growth and cycles. In this paper, we review the recent empirical and theoretical literature that motivate this paradigm shift. The renewed interest in hysteresis has been sparked by the persistence of the Global Financial Crisis and fears of a slow recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. The findings of the recent literature have far-reaching conceptual and policy implications. In recessions, monetary and fiscal policies need to be more active to avoid the permanent scars of a downturn. And in good times, running a high-pressure economy could have permanent positive effects.

Structural Unemployment in Luxembourg: Bad Luck or Rational Choice?

Structural Unemployment in Luxembourg: Bad Luck or Rational Choice? PDF Author: William Gbohoui
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513519999
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
This paper combines both micro and macro approaches to identify the drivers of (un)employment and inactivity in Luxembourg. The young, low-skilled, and non-EU migrants are found to be the most vulnerable groups in the labor market. In addition to skills mismatches, work disincentives embedded in the tax-benefit system constitute a factor explaining structural unemployment. High unemployment of young and low-skilled workers reflects substantial unemployment traps, while disincentives for second earners (respectively the generosity of the pension system) contribute to lower labor market participation of women (respectively seniors). Further reduction of structural unemployment requires better integration of vulnerable groups into the labor market and improved targeting of benefits to make work more rewarding.

The Economics of Poverty Traps

The Economics of Poverty Traps PDF Author: Christopher B. Barrett
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022657430X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
What circumstances or behaviors turn poverty into a cycle that perpetuates across generations? The answer to this question carries especially important implications for the design and evaluation of policies and projects intended to reduce poverty. Yet a major challenge analysts and policymakers face in understanding poverty traps is the sheer number of mechanisms—not just financial, but also environmental, physical, and psychological—that may contribute to the persistence of poverty all over the world. The research in this volume explores the hypothesis that poverty is self-reinforcing because the equilibrium behaviors of the poor perpetuate low standards of living. Contributions explore the dynamic, complex processes by which households accumulate assets and increase their productivity and earnings potential, as well as the conditions under which some individuals, groups, and economies struggle to escape poverty. Investigating the full range of phenomena that combine to generate poverty traps—gleaned from behavioral, health, and resource economics as well as the sociology, psychology, and environmental literatures—chapters in this volume also present new evidence that highlights both the insights and the limits of a poverty trap lens. The framework introduced in this volume provides a robust platform for studying well-being dynamics in developing economies.

Flawed System/Flawed Self

Flawed System/Flawed Self PDF Author: Ofer Sharone
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022607367X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Today 4.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months. In France more than ten percent of the working population is without work. In Israel it’s above seven percent. And in Greece and Spain, that number approaches thirty percent. Across the developed world, the experience of unemployment has become frighteningly common—and so are the seemingly endless tactics that job seekers employ in their quest for new work. Flawed System/Flawed Self delves beneath these staggering numbers to explore the world of job searching and unemployment across class and nation. Through in-depth interviews and observations at job-search support organizations, Ofer Sharone reveals how different labor-market institutions give rise to job-search games like Israel’s résumé-based “spec games”—which are focused on presenting one’s skills to fit the job—and the “chemistry games” more common in the United States in which job seekers concentrate on presenting the person behind the résumé. By closely examining the specific day-to-day activities and strategies of searching for a job, Sharone develops a theory of the mechanisms that connect objective social structures and subjective experiences in this challenging environment and shows how these different structures can lead to very different experiences of unemployment.

Poverty Traps

Poverty Traps PDF Author: Samuel Bowles
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691170932
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Much popular belief--and public policy--rests on the idea that those born into poverty have it in their power to escape. But the persistence of poverty and ever-growing economic inequality around the world have led many economists to seriously question the model of individual economic self-determination when it comes to the poor. In Poverty Traps, Samuel Bowles, Steven Durlauf, Karla Hoff, and the book's other contributors argue that there are many conditions that may trap individuals, groups, and whole economies in intractable poverty. For the first time the editors have brought together the perspectives of economics, economic history, and sociology to assess what we know--and don't know--about such traps. Among the sources of the poverty of nations, the authors assign a primary role to social and political institutions, ranging from corruption to seemingly benign social customs such as kin systems. Many of the institutions that keep nations poor have deep roots in colonial history and persist long after their initial causes are gone. Neighborhood effects--influences such as networks, role models, and aspirations--can create hard-to-escape pockets of poverty even in rich countries. Similar individuals in dissimilar socioeconomic environments develop different preferences and beliefs that can transmit poverty or affluence from generation to generation. The book presents evidence of harmful neighborhood effects and discusses policies to overcome them, with attention to the uncertainty that exists in evaluating such policies.

Not Working

Not Working PDF Author: David G. Blanchflower
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691217092
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
A candid explanation of how the labor market really works and is central to everything—and why it is not as healthy as we think Relying on unemployment numbers is a dangerous way to gauge how the labor market is doing. Because of a false sense of optimism prior to the COVID-19 shock, the working world was more vulnerable than it should have been. Not Working is about how people want full-time work at a decent wage and how the plight of the underemployed contributes to widespread despair, a worsening drug epidemic, and the unchecked rise of right-wing populism. David Blanchflower explains why the economy since the Great Recession is vastly different from what came before, and calls out our leaders for their continued failure to address one of the most unacknowledged social catastrophes of our time. This revelatory and outspoken book is his candid report on how the young and the less skilled are among the worst casualties of underemployment, how immigrants are taking the blame, and how the epidemic of unhappiness and self-destruction will continue to spread unless we deal with it. Especially urgent now, Not Working is an essential guide to strengthening the labor market for all when we need it most.

Unemployment Traps and Poverty Traps

Unemployment Traps and Poverty Traps PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Taxation
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description


Optimal Unemployment Insurance

Optimal Unemployment Insurance PDF Author: Andreas Pollak
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161493041
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Designing a good unemployment insurance scheme is a delicate matter. In a system with no or little insurance, households may be subject to a high income risk, whereas excessively generous unemployment insurance systems are known to lead to high unemployment rates and are costly both from a fiscal perspective and for society as a whole. Andreas Pollak investigates what an optimal unemployment insurance system would look like, i.e. a system that constitutes the best possible compromise between income security and incentives to work. Using theoretical economic models and complex numerical simulations, he studies the effects of benefit levels and payment durations on unemployment and welfare. As the models allow for considerable heterogeneity of households, including a history-dependent labor productivity, it is possible to analyze how certain policies affect individuals in a specific age, wealth or skill group. The most important aspect of an unemployment insurance system turns out to be the benefits paid to the long-term unemployed. If this parameter is chosen too high, a large number of households may get caught in a long spell of unemployment with little chance of finding work again. Based on the predictions in these models, the so-called "Hartz IV" labor market reform recently adopted in Germany should have highly favorable effects on the unemployment rates and welfare in the long run.

The Unemployment Trap

The Unemployment Trap PDF Author: Mateo Alaluf
Publisher: Manhattan Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This report defines the social exclusion process by examining long-term unemployment and educational deficiencies in Europe and assessing the scope and effectiveness of the steps taken by the governments concerned to deal with the problem. Chapter I looks at education and prolonged unemployment in six countries that reflect the range of European experience--Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Chapter II considers the countries individually from the point of view both of the extent of long-term unemployment and of the steps taken to limit its effects. Chapter III outlines the main features of long-term unemployment, while chapter IV reviews the types of measures introduced in the different countries and assesses the impact of national policies. Chapter V looks at the problems associated with lack of education and training and with illiteracy, chapter VI sets the problems in the context of the labor market, and chapter VII in that of economic policy options. The final chapter discusses the relationship between educational deficiencies and long-term unemployment. The aim is to identify both the ways in which social exclusion operates and the role of public policy in this area. (Contains 50 references.) (YLB)

Labor Market Performance in Transition

Labor Market Performance in Transition PDF Author: Ms.Miho Ihara
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781589064690
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
More than a decade after the start of the transition process, unemployment rates remain in the double digits in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. That unemployment rates have failed to decline, even in countries experiencing good growth, is puzzling. In this paper the authors examine three interrelated questions: How has the transition from central planning to market economies affected labor market performance? How have labor market institutions and policies influenced developments? Why have regional differences in unemployment persisted? The authors take an eclectic methodological approach: construction of a new data set and a simple analytical model; econometric estimation; and case studies. They find that faster-performing countries have better unemployment records; that labor market policies have some, but not dominant, influence over labor market outcomes; that policies not typically viewed as labor market policies can nevertheless significantly affect labor markets; and that market processes cannot be relied on to eliminate regional differences in unemployment.