International and Interregional Differences in Employment and Unemployment Rates

Antonio Aquino ()
Additional contact information
Antonio Aquino: Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Postal: via P. Bucci - 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy, http://www.unical.it/portale/

Economia Internazionale / International Economics, 2008, vol. 61, issue 1, 1-24

Abstract: In the mid nineties of last century unemployment was perceived in several countries as one of the most disruptive social problems. Several economists, sociologists and policymakers proposed of reducing by law working hours as the only effective strategy for diminishing unemployment. In the last decade employment has increased significantly in almost all countries and average rates of unemployment have diminished. Inside a few large countries there are however some regions where rates of employment are still very low and unemployment remains a disruptive social problem. In the analytical framework of international economics this result appears quite disappointing, since relatively less efficient regions which belong to relatively rich nations can usually benefit from substantial transfers from relatively more productive regions, and have hence the possibility of stimulating employment through more expansionary fiscal policies. This paradoxical result stems from the fact that the comparative advantage of regions as far as fiscal policy is concerned is more than outweighed by their comparative disadvantage from the point of view of the possibility of compensating their lower productivity by means of a lower price for labour.

Keywords: International Competitive Equilibrium; Labour Markets; Employment and Unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 J60 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iei1946.it/RePEc/ccg/AQUINO%201_24.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:ecoint:0041

Access Statistics for this article

Economia Internazionale / International Economics is currently edited by Giovanni Battista Pittaluga

More articles in Economia Internazionale / International Economics from Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova Via Garibaldi 4, 16124 Genova, Italy. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Angela Procopio ().