Labour Supply and Incentives to Work in Europe

Edited by Ramón Gómez-Salvador, Principal Economist, Directorate General Economics, European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Ana Lamo, Senior Economist, Directorate General Research, European Central Bank, Germany, Barbara Petrongolo, Lecturer, Department of Economics and Research Associate, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, UK, Melanie Ward, Senior Economist, Directorate General Economics, European Central Bank, Germany and Etienne Wasmer, Sciences Po Paris, France

• Contents: Introduction Part I: Incentives to Work 1. A Matching Model of Non-Employment and Wage Pressure 2. Tax-effects on Work Activity, Industry Mix and Shadow Economy Size: Evidence from Rich Country Comparisons Part II: Factors Affecting Labour Force Participation 3. Mother’s Changing Labour Supply in Britain, the USA and Sweden 4. Women’s Hours of Market Work in Germany – The Role of Parental Leave 5. The Determinants of Labour Force Participation in the European Union 6. Hiring Incentives and Labour Force Participation in Italy Part III: New Forms of Employment Relationships 7. Recent Developments in Part-time Work in EU Countries: Trends and Policy 8. Matching Workers to Jobs on the Fast Lane: The Operation of Fixed-Term Contracts

'The book is a nice collection of articles - each contribution followed by the comment for a discussant - that centres on labour supply in Europe. . . the book provides interesting reading, and the editors' foreword offers a good summary of the contributions of the many authors an, in linking the four parts of the book, helps the reader see them as a whole. . . the book is worth reading. It contains interesting contributions that provide enough food for thought on the many factors that impinge on the decision to participate in the labour force and particularly on those that constrain women's labour-force involvement.'