Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/153100 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 666
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
We estimate a dynamic, intertemporal optimisation model that mimics features of European labour markets, such as sticky nominal wages and sluggish adjustment of employment to shocks for 15 OECD countries. The estimates include a measure for the degree of labour market sluggishness that compares well with standard indicators of product and labour market regulation. Calibration of the model on a selected country sample confirms its explanatory power in comparison with the standard competitive markets model. In a second step, the measure for labour market sluggishness is used as a policy variable and model variants are simulated in order to assess the extent to which the countries would have performed better with more flexible labour markets. These policy experiments show that an increase in labour market flexibility reduces the volatility of consumption relative to production, improves intertemporal efficiency but entails higher employment risk.
Subjects: 
business cycles
labour market reforms in OECD countries
nominal and real rigidities
non-clearing labour markets
JEL: 
E32
C61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
680.09 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.