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Doing It Right? The U.S. Labor Market Response to the 1980s–1990s

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Fighting Europe’s Unemployment in the 1990s

Abstract

Many European analysts and policymakers view the U.S. labor market as a paradise of neoclassical flexibility. Wages respond rapidly to changes in supply and demand in local labor markets with little institutional intervention. Jobs are readily created for those who seek them. Firms hire and fire at will, with little government or union restrictions. Spells of unemployment are short in duration, and unemployment benefits modest. As a result, the story goes, the United States has avoided the long extensive joblessness that has characterized Europe since the early 1980s.

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Authors
  1. Richard B. Freeman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kiel Institute of World Economics, P.O Box 4309, D-24100, Kiel, Germany

    Herbert Giersch (Past President) (Past President)

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Freeman, R.B. (1996). Doing It Right? The U.S. Labor Market Response to the 1980s–1990s. In: Giersch, H. (eds) Fighting Europe’s Unemployment in the 1990s. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61134-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61134-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64710-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-61134-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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