Adjustment capacity of labour markets of the Western Balkan countries

Dg Ecfin and Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anna Iara

No 346, European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 from Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

Abstract: Study on the adjustment capacity to shocks of EU candidate and potential candidate countries of the Western Balkans, with a focus on labour markets, and background studies on several countries of the region. The main question addressed in this study is the performance of the labour markets in the Western Balkans; to find out whether they can deliver growth of employment and decline of unemployment in the medium run and whether they can withstand short-term shocks due to changes in demand or supply. The study finds that there is an important case for improving the rule of law and the quality of public services in general in the fight against very low participation and employment rates in the region, as well as very high unemployment. Wages, with some exceptions in specific sectors, do not seem to be mis-aligned with respect to productivity developments. There is some indication of possible positive effects from adjusting employment protection legislation, especially for women. The study also identifies an important role for income policies in some of the countries as an important complement to labour market policies.

Keywords: Adjustment capacity; external shocks; Western Balkan countries; South-East Europe; labour markets; EU candidate countries; potential candidate countries; employment protection legislation; rule of law; wages; productivity; taxwedge; remittances; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F24 J21 J24 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 116 pages
Date: 2008-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication13368_en.pdf (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:euf:ecopap:0346

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 from Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ECFIN INFO ().