Recent Labour Market Reforms: A Comparison of the 'Kiwi' and 'Polder' Models

Unemployment remains a major economic and social problem in many developed economies. This paper is concerned with the impact of labour market reform as a means of combatting unemployment and of enhancing competitive wage determination. The paper focuses specifically on The Netherlands and New Zealand, two small open economies in which unemployment rates reduced to close to half of their respective post-1980 peaks, following reforms. The labour market policies that contributed to these outcomes are referred to as the 'Polder' model and the 'Kiwi' model respectively. Despite some similarities,... Mehr ...