Richard Layard is one of Britain's foremost applied economists, whose work has had a profound impact on the policy debate in Britain and abroad. This book contains his most influential articles on the subject of unemployment. It is published along with a companion volume Inequality , which deals with these topics and with economic transition. Unemployment explains what causes unemployment and proposes remedies to reduce it. There is a strong focus on how unemployed people are treated and how this affects unemployment - including Layard's well-known recommendation of a job-guarantee for long term unemployed people. Other key topics covered are the effect of unions and wage bargaining, the effect of low skill, and the possible role of rigid employment laws. The book opens with Richard Layard's personal credo Why I became an Economist .

Acknowledgements Why I am an Economist PART A: REASONS Introduction: Explaining Unemployment Wage Rigidity and Unemployment in OECD Countries The Performance of the British Labour Market On Vacancies Does Long-term Unemployment Reduce a Person's Chance of a Job? Mismatch: A Framework for Thought European Versus U.S. Unemployment: Different Responses to Increased Demand for Skill? Why Does Unemployment Persist? Combating Unemployment: is Flexibility Enough? The Causes of Graduate Unemployment in India PART B: REMEDIES Introduction: Policy Remedies for Unemployment Unemployment in Britain: Causes and Cures Preventing Long-Term Unemployment: An Economic Analysis Preventing Long-Term Unemployment: Strategy and Costings The Efficiency Case for Long-Run Labour Market Policies The Case for Subsidising Extra Jobs Is Incomes Policy the Answer to Unemployment ? The Real Effects of Tax-Based Incomes Policies How to End Pay Leapfrogging Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain Over Employment? Europe in 1948: The Case for Unsustainable Growth Appendix: Publications by Richard Layard Index

RICHARD LAYARD is Director of the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance. He has worked for many years on the problems of unemployment and inflation and is co-author of the influential book Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. In 1985 he founded the Employment Institute and was its Chairman from 1987-92. During the 1970s he worked on income distribution, co-authoring The Causes of Poverty for the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and was a part-time consultant to the Treasury. During the 1980s he was chairman of the European Commission's Macroeconomics Policy Group, and then co-chairman of the World Economy Group set up by the UN University. He was a member of the Commission on Public Policy and British Business whose report Promoting Prosperity was published in 1997. Following the General Election of 1997, he has worked as a consultant to the Department of Education and Employment.

In November 1991 Yegor Gaidar invited him to become an adviser to the Russian government's economic staff. He has acted in that capacity ever since and heads a team of 3 Westerners and 3 Russians working in Moscow with the economic staff of the government. The team produces Russian Economic Trends, a comprehensive monthly review of the Russian economy.