Taxation, Wage Bargaining, and Unemployment

"There is no doubt at all that this book will change the terms of the debate on the political economy of unemployment. It provides for the first time a simple political economic argument which purports to explain movements of unemployment rates both over time (long periods of time), and across advanced economies. From this perspective it is a huge achievement which Professor Mares manages to make look extremely simple. No other book has tried to explain in a unified way the long term and comparative trends in unemployment. A formidable achievement." David Soskice, Duke University

"The book makes a highly original attempt to account for the secular rise of permanent long-term unemployment in European countries, by incorporating the maturation of the welfare state as an important additional factor in current theories of wage formation. Linking collective bargaining and social policy in a novel way, Mares opens new perspectives on the politics of Social Pacts during the 1990s." Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies