Growth and employment: The scope of a European initiative

doi:10.1016/0014-2921(94)90086-8

European Economic Review

Volume 38, Issues 3–4, April 1994, Pages 489-504

https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-2921(94)90086-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper is an abridged version of a policy initiative paper, prepared with a dozen colleagues in Louvain-la-Neuve and Paris. We propose a set of policies to cope with Europe's persistent unemployment, including two medium-term programs: a drastic reduction of the indirect cost of unskilled labour and an ambitious stimulation of targeted investments. The bottom line is that policies addressing meaninfully Europe's unemployment problem must be pursued on a bolder scale than currently contemplated.

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^∗: Corresponding author. This is a condensed version of a position paper prepared collectively at the initiative of Jacques Drèze and Edmond Malinvaud, who invited a few colleagues, Paul De Grauwe, Louis Gevers, Alexander Italianer, Olivier Lefebvre, Maurice Marchand, Henri Sneessens, Alfred Steinherr and Paul Champsaur, Jean-Michel Charpin, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Guy Laroque, to meet with them, respectively in Louvain-la-Neuve and Paris, in order to consider the terms of a meaningful growth initiative in Europe. The full text is available from the authors. All the authors participated in a personal capacity; the views expressed here are their responsibility, and should not be ascribed to the institutions with which they are affiliated. The authors invite reactions, criticisms and suggestions from fellow economists. The theme will be taken up again at the 1994 Congress of the European Economic Association.

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