Taxation, Welfare and the Crisis of Unemployment in Europe

Edited by Marco Buti, Director of the Economies of the Member States, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, Paolo Sestito, Banca d’Italia – Research Department, Italy and Hans Wijkander, Professor of Economics, Stockholm University, Sweden

• Contents: 1. Overview Part I: The Issues 2. Redistribution and Labour-supply Incentives Part II: The Facts 3. Effective Taxation, Spending and Employment Performance 4. Net Replacement Rates of the Unemployed: Comparisons of Various Approaches 5. The Retreat of the Welfare System: Myths and Reality – A Broad Comparison of Trends in Social Protection Expenditure across EU Countries Part III: Evaluation Methods 6. Evaluating the Labour Supply Responses to ‘in-work’ Benefit Reforms for Low Income Workers 7. Tax Reform and Labour Supply in Sweden: Were Low and High Skill Individuals Affected Differently? Part IV: General Equilibrium Effects 8. The Dutch Employment Miracle and Fiscal Challenges of the Twenty-first Century 9. Skill-biased Technical Change, Sectoral Heterogeneity and Wage Setting: Unemployment or Wage Inequality Index

'This book provides a thorough institutional and theoretical analysis of this specific sector of European policy making, highlighting the key problems involved in reforming European tax and benefit systems as well as suggesting possible ways to improve efficiency. Policymakers and scholars of European welfare and labour market policies will therefore find this book useful.'