Suchergebnisse

Tables of national competitiveness give an easily comparable ranking of the winners and losers of global economic competition, but they do not explain why the poor countries are four times less productive than the rich ones or why some rich countries are twice as productive as others. Using empirical data from over 50 countries, this book shows how even small differences in a number of factors combine to boost or block productivity. Governments need such information to set priorities. Investors need it too, and two new rankings are proposed as alternatives to a simple comparison of industrial productivity. The first, called the investor ranking, is based on infrastructure, human capital and total factor productivity. The second, exporter ranking, is for investors whose prime concern is for a production platform well-integrated into world trade. Combining the new rankings with a more traditional one produces three groups of countries, termed balanced, high potential, and vulnerable. Group membership reserves some surprises: you may be rich, but that does not mean you are not vulnerable.--Publisher's description

Abstract
While there is a fairly broad consensus regarding the potential adverse effects of generous unemployment benefit insurance on steady-state employment, the short-term effects of benefit reforms are not well-established. This paper contributes to fill this gap by estimating impulse responses to benefit reform "shocks" identified for a panel of OECD countries. Findings indicate that although it takes time for unemployment benefit reforms to pay off, such reforms do not appear to entail any negative short-run effects. There is however some suggestive evidence that reducing unemployment benefits could have negative short-run effects in "bad times".

JEL classification

E02, E24, E60, J38, J58, J68