What Hides Behind an Unemployment Rate: Comparing Portuguese and U.S. Labor Markets
美国和葡萄牙失业率相近，但葡萄牙失业持续时间是美国的三倍，工人流入失业的流量却只有美国的三分之一，原因可能是葡萄牙的高就业保护制度。
Behind similar unemployment rates in the United States and Portugal hide two very different labor markets. Unemployment duration is three times longer in Portugal than in the United States. Symmetrically, flows of workers into unemployment are three times lower in Portugal. These lower flows come in roughly equal proportions from lower job creation and destruction, and from lower worker flows given job creation and destruction. A plausible explanation is high employment protection in Portugal. High employment protection makes economies more sclerotic; but because it affects unemployment duration and worker flows in opposite directions, the effect on unemployment is ambiguous.