Eichhorst, W. & Neder, F. (2014) “Youth Unemployment in Mediterranean Countries“, Institute for the Study of Labor, IZA Policy Paper No. 80, Μάρτιος.   In all Mediterranean countries youth unemployment has reached alarming record levels. This paper analyses the current situation in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In all countries school dropout rates are high, returns to education are low and the transition from education to work is problematic …Read More

Chen et al. (2014) “Globalisation and the Future of the Welfare State“, Institute for the Study of Labor, IZA Policy Paper No. 81, Μάρτιος.   This paper reconsiders the link between welfare state provision, globalisation and competitiveness empirically. We challenge the conventional wisdom that welfare states, large-scale public provision of social insurance and progressive systems of redistributive taxation are incompatible with economic globalisation. Our empirical analysis is motivated by recent …Read More

Castelló-Climent, A. & Doménech, R. (2014) “Human capital and income inequality: Some facts and some puzzles“, VoxEU Organisation, 23 Απριλίου.   Most developing countries have made a great effort to eradicate illiteracy. As a result, the inequality in the distribution of education has been reduced by more than half from 1950 to 2010. However, inequality in the distribution of income has hardly changed. This column presents evidence from a new …Read More

Esposito, M. & Tse, T. (2014) “The lost generation: what is true about the myth…”, LSE – Euro Crisis in the Press, 07 Απριλίου.   If we were to believe the forecasts from the European Commission, unemployment in the Eurozone appears to have started – at long last – showing signs of small but fragile recovery. However, that does not mean we can rest on our laurels as the economic …Read More

Hetschko, C., Knabe, A. & Schöb, R. (2014) “Changing Identity: Retiring From Unemployment”, The Economic Journal, 124: 149–166, Μάρτιος.   Using German panel data, we show that unemployed people are, on average, less satisfied with their life than employed people, but they report a substantial increase in their life satisfaction upon retirement. We interpret this finding using identity theory. Retirement raises the identity utility of the unemployed because it changes the …Read More