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Bruno Van der Linden

LIDAM/IRES, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and IZA, Germany

Decision makers and citizens need balanced, well-documented, non-technical syntheses about phenomena occurring on the labor market and about the effect of policy interventions. As far as I understand, providing this kind of information is the project of IZA World of Labor. Taking part in this project is challenging and attractive.

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor in the Economics Department of the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Research interest

Income taxation, labour market, welfare, spatial heterogeneities in unemployment rates, wage formation, and implications of search and matching frictions, environmental challenges and the labor market

Website

http://perso.uclouvain.be/bruno.vanderlinden/

Qualifications

PhD in Applied Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, 1987

Selected publications

  • “Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good For work incentives?” Labour Economics 64 (2020): 101816 (with B. Cockx, K. Declercq, M. Dejemeppe, and L. Inga).

  • “Why cash transfer programs can both stimulate and slow down job finding.” IZA Journal of Labor Economics 8 (2019): 1–27 (with J. Mesén Vargas).

  • “Workforce location and equilibrium unemployment in a duocentric economy with matching frictions.” Journal of Urban Economics 91 (2016): 26–44 (with E. Lehmann and P. L. Montero Ledezma).

  • “Regional equilibrium unemployment theory at the age of the internet.” Regional Science and Urban Economics 53 (2015): 50–67 (with V. Lutgen).

  • “Is it socially efficient to impose job search requirements on unemployed benefit claimants with hyperbolic preferences?” Journal of Public Economics 113 (2014): 80–95 (with B. Cockx and C. Ghirelli).

article(s)

  • Do in-work benefits work for low-skilled workers? Updated

    To boost the employment rate of the low-skilled trapped in inactivity is it sufficient to supplement their earnings?

    Bruno Van der Linden, June 2021
    High risk of poverty and low employment rates are widespread among low-skilled groups, especially in the case of some household compositions (e.g. single mothers). “Making-work-pay” policies have been advocated for and implemented to address these issues. They alleviate the above-mentioned problems without providing a disincentive to work. However, do they deliver on their promises? If they do reduce poverty and enhance employment, is it possible to determine their effects on indicators of well-being, such as mental health and life satisfaction, or on the acquisition of human capital?
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  • The labor market in Belgium, 2000–2016

    Beyond satisfactory average performances lies a strongly segmented labor market with long-term challenges

    Vincent BodartMuriel DejemeppeBruno Van der Linden, March 2018
    Might the Belgian labor market be included in the gallery of “Belgian surrealism”? At first sight, Belgium with its 11 million inhabitants has withstood the Great Recession and the euro area debt crisis relatively well, quickly getting back on track toward growth and employment, apparently without rising earnings inequality. But if one digs a little deeper, Belgium appears to be a strongly segmented labor market, first and foremost in an astounding north–south regional (linguistic) dimension. This extreme heterogeneity, along with several demographic challenges, should serve as a warning for the future.
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