The European Employment Problem

这个项目将增进我们对“欧洲失业问题”的理解。许多经济学家报告说，大约自1970年以来，美国和一些欧洲国家在失业率方面一直存在差异。欧洲的失业率比美国高得多，许多学者认为，这种差异是由于欧洲劳动力市场制度如何应对上世纪70年代的全球经济冲击。然而，看就业率而不是失业率会得出不同的结论。美国和欧洲之间的差异并不是在20世纪70年代首次出现，而是在二战后的整个时期持续存在。原因似乎是服务业就业率的差异演变，美国的服务业就业率有所增长，而欧洲的服务业就业率基本保持稳定。这个项目的目标是确定各种因素在产生这种差异中的作用。PI将进行进一步的数据分析，以更好地记录不同经济体之间的差异，他将开发理论模型，研究不同经济部门的就业如何随着时间的推移而变化，他将使用这些模型来评估税收、生产率和工会组织等因素如何解释这些差异。因此，该项目将增进我们对劳动力市场结果以及政策决定如何影响就业率的基本理解。

This project will improve our understanding of the "European Unemployment Problem". Many economists have reported that there have been persistent differences between the U.S. and a group of Eurpean countries in unemployment since about 1970. Unemployment has been substantially higher in Europe than in the U.S., and many scholars have suggested that this difference is due to how European labor market institutions handled the global economic shocks of the 1970s.However, looking at employment rates rather than unemployment rates tells a different story. The difference between the U.S. and Europe does not first appear in the 1970s, but appears to persist throughout the post-WWII period. The cause appears to be the differential evolution of the service sector employment rate, which has grown in the US while remaining largely stable in Europe.The goal of this project is to determine the role of various factors in creating this difference. The PI will conduct further data analysis to better document the differences across economies, he will develop theoretical models to study how employment in different sectors of the economy has changed over time, and he will use the models to evaluate how factors such as taxes, productivity, and unionization can account for the differences.The project will therefore improve our fundamental understanding of labor market outcomes and how policy decisions shape employment rates.