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Growth patterns through the 1990s and into this decade have turned received wisdom on its head. For most of the post-war period OECD countries with relatively low GDP per capita grew faster than richer countries. In the 1990s this pattern broke down. Most notably, the United States, which, already with a relatively high level of GDP per capita among the world's major economies, drew further ahead of the field from the second half of the 1990s onwards. The growth performance of much of continental Europe remains comparatively weak and Japan remains mired.

Laws on hiring and firing are intended to protect workers from unfair behavior by employers, to counter imperfections in financial markets that limit workers' ability to insure themselves against job loss, and to preserve firm-specific human capital. But by imposing costs on firms' adaptation to changes in demand and technology, employment protection legislation may reduce not only job destruction but also job creation, hindering the efficient allocation of labor and productivity growth.

The OECD labor market has undergone major changes over the past two decades. The most evident of these changes is the rise in the number of job-seekers. In 1997, there were more than 35 million people unemployed in the OECD area as a whole, some 6 million more than in the mid-1980s and almost 25 million more than in the early 1970s. These figures hide profound differences across countries. In the major European countries, unemployment has increased dramatically over the past two decades and in some of them, including Italy, Spain, and France, increases that were initially cyclical have tended to become structural over time.

Der Autor analysiert mit OECD-Daten für 1970-1993, welche Bedeutung institutionelle Faktoren für die Höhe der strukturellen bzw. gleichgewichtigen Arbeitslosigkeit und die Anpassungsfähigkeit der Arbeitsmärkte haben. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei die Systeme der Arbeitslosenunterstützung, des Kündigungsschutzes und die Systeme der Lohnfindung. (IAB)