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Europe > Ireland

You are looking at 1 - 5 of 5 items for :

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Greece: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Rigidities in Greece’s product and labor markets leading to economic imbalances and the significance of reforms to these markets are played out in the first paper. The second paper describes the problems, progress to date, and agenda for work in Greece’s revenue administration and how this effort has been achieved primarily by raising tax rates to high levels and reducing wages, pensions, and other spending. The third paper is on the need for designing and implementing debt restructuring frameworks as well as improving banks’ loan resolution practices so that Greece’s banks are positioned to support the economic recovery.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; product market; labor market; firm; Greece; product market reform; adjustment cost; revenue administration; flexibility indicator; labor market reform; administration reform; Credit; Commodity markets; Nonperforming loans; Tax administration core functions; Global; Eastern Europe; Baltics
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Spanish Labor Market in a Cross-Country Perspective
Ms. Florence Jaumotte
The Spanish labor market is not working: the unemployment rate is structurally very high; wages are not very responsive to labor market conditions, causing a high cyclicality of unemployment; and the labor market is highly dual. Compared with the EU15, Spanish labor market institutions and policies stand out by the structure of its collective bargaining, which occurs mostly at an intermediate level, and by very high severance payments for permanent workers. Based on a quantitative analysis, the paper shows that moving away from the intermediate level of bargaining would go a long way toward bringing the unemployment rate closer to the EU15 average. The key reform needed to reduce the share of temporary workers is reducing employment protection of permanent workers. Substantially reforming the collective bargaining system and reducing the protection of permanent workers are likely to be highly complementary to secure a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate. The recent 2010 labor market reform attempts to address these issues, although its effects are still to materialize.
Keywords:
WP; labor market; share of temporary workers; equilibrium unemployment; wage agreement
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Italian Labor Market: Recent Trends, Institutions, and Reform Options
Mr. Martin Schindler
Despite improvements in labor market performance over the past decade, owing in part to past reforms, Italy's employment and productivity outcomes continue to lag behind those of its European peers. This paper reviews Italy's institutional landscape and labor market trends from a cross-country perspective, and discusses possible avenues for further reform. The policy discussion draws on international reform experience and on simulations based on a calibrated labor market matching model. A key lesson is that the details of reform design, and the sequencing of reforms, matter greatly for labor market outcomes and for the fiscal costs associated with these reforms.
Keywords:
WP; labor market; product market; wage; Labor markets; product markets; regulations; fiscal policy; Italy; matching model; product market regulation; labor market outcome; product market deregulation; reform measure; reform benefit; Labor market reforms; Employment; Commodity markets; Wages; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Product Market Regulation and the Benefits of Wage Moderation
Mr. Marcello M. Estevão
Euro-area real wages have decelerated sharply in the last 20 years, but this has not yet translated into visibly lower unemployment or faster growth. Weak output growth after such a cost shock is somewhat puzzling and has led some to question the benefits of wage moderation. By isolating structural from cyclical factors in a panel of industrial countries, I show that structurally slower real wage growth, that is, "wage moderation," does raise output growth and lower unemployment rates. However, I show that the impact on both variables depends crucially on product market regulation: weaker competition and barriers to entry mute the growth effects of structural real wage changes by allowing incumbent firms to appropriate larger rents. In this context, overly regulated product markets in the euro area are undermining the effects of labor market reforms on output and employment.
Keywords:
WP; product market; product market regulation; wage curve; labor market reform; Structural change; labor market; reforms; sequencing product market; wage-curve shift; product market reform; product market competition; Commodity markets; Wages; Wage bargaining; Unemployment rate; Real wages
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Euro Area Policies: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund
This Selected Issues paper for euro area policies analyzes the product market regulation and benefits of wage moderation. The paper identifies structural shifts in the relationship between wages and unemployment rates—a “wage curve”—in 20 industrial countries. It reviews euro area and cross-country developments in labor costs and their bivariate relationship with unemployment rates and business GDP. The paper also examines aspects of the European Central Bank’s monetary analysis, within the context of their overall two-pillar policy framework, and issues surrounding its use.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; EU bank; market; bank; product market regulation; house price; banking sector; wage moderation; wage-curve shift; labor market reform; Housing prices; Asset prices; Inflation; Commodity markets; Europe; Central and Eastern Europe; Global; Western Europe