Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000

This paper reconsiders the problem of unemployment in Europe at multiple geographic levels and through time from 1984 to 2000. We employ a panel structure that permits us to separate regional, national and continental influences on Europeanunemployment. Important local effects include the economic g...

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Main Authors: James K. Galbraith, Enrique Garcilazo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associazione Economia civile 2004-03-01
Series:PSL Quarterly Review
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ojs.uniroma1.it/index.php/PSLQuarterlyReview/article/view/9820/9705
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author James K. Galbraith
Enrique Garcilazo
author_facet James K. Galbraith
Enrique Garcilazo
author_sort James K. Galbraith
collection DOAJ
description This paper reconsiders the problem of unemployment in Europe at multiple geographic levels and through time from 1984 to 2000. We employ a panel structure that permits us to separate regional, national and continental influences on Europeanunemployment. Important local effects include the economic growth rate, relative wealth or poverty, and the proportion of young people in the labor force. As part of this analysis, we assess the relationship between pay inequality and unemployment in Europe, following the insight of Harris and Todaro (1970) that pay inequalities influence job search. With our own panel of inequality measures derived from Eurostat's REGIO data set, we find that higher pay inequality, though usually taken to indicate greater labor market flexibility, is associated with more, not less,unemployment. Among large countries distinctive effects at the national level are few, perhaps indicating that national labor market institutions are not a decisive factor in the determination of unemployment. Changes in the macro-environment are picked up by time fixed effects, and these show a striking pan-European rise inunemployment immediately following the Maastricht Treaty, though with some encouraging recovery late in the decade.
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spelling doaj.art-ae27943567684544b445e002294666b72022-12-21T20:07:16ZengAssociazione Economia civilePSL Quarterly Review2037-36352037-36432004-03-0157228328Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000James K. GalbraithEnrique GarcilazoThis paper reconsiders the problem of unemployment in Europe at multiple geographic levels and through time from 1984 to 2000. We employ a panel structure that permits us to separate regional, national and continental influences on Europeanunemployment. Important local effects include the economic growth rate, relative wealth or poverty, and the proportion of young people in the labor force. As part of this analysis, we assess the relationship between pay inequality and unemployment in Europe, following the insight of Harris and Todaro (1970) that pay inequalities influence job search. With our own panel of inequality measures derived from Eurostat's REGIO data set, we find that higher pay inequality, though usually taken to indicate greater labor market flexibility, is associated with more, not less,unemployment. Among large countries distinctive effects at the national level are few, perhaps indicating that national labor market institutions are not a decisive factor in the determination of unemployment. Changes in the macro-environment are picked up by time fixed effects, and these show a striking pan-European rise inunemployment immediately following the Maastricht Treaty, though with some encouraging recovery late in the decade.http://ojs.uniroma1.it/index.php/PSLQuarterlyReview/article/view/9820/9705PayUnemployment
spellingShingle James K. Galbraith
Enrique Garcilazo
Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
PSL Quarterly Review
Pay
Unemployment
title Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
title_full Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
title_fullStr Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
title_full_unstemmed Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
title_short Unemployment, inquality and the policy of Europe: 1984-2000
title_sort unemployment inquality and the policy of europe 1984 2000
topic Pay
Unemployment
url http://ojs.uniroma1.it/index.php/PSLQuarterlyReview/article/view/9820/9705
work_keys_str_mv AT jameskgalbraith unemploymentinqualityandthepolicyofeurope19842000
AT enriquegarcilazo unemploymentinqualityandthepolicyofeurope19842000