Interventions in labour markets: An overview

Juergen B. Donges and Dean Spinanger

No 175, Kiel Working Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)

Abstract: The starting point of this overview is the contention that unemployment problems in industrial countries can be attributed to a significant extent to distortions in the labour market. These interventions have caused the level and structure of real wages to not adequately reflect the productivity of labour and the differences of skills in the labour force. Myriads of laws and regulations, most of which have been implemented in the course of creating the modern Welfare State, have made it very expensive for firms to hire labour, have made it unattractive for some employees to change jobs between firms or regions and have made it lucrative for others not to work. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of government and trade union policies on the labour market and thus on employment. The analysis will focus on policies (i) directly influencing pay levels, (ii) directed toward job rights, (iii) concerned with job environment, and (iv)i dealing with social aspects.

Date: 1983
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/46682/1/056778716.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:zbw:ifwkwp:175

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Kiel Working Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().