The peristence of European unemployment stands in striking contrast to the cyclical pattern of unemployment in the US. Many people attribute the rise in European unemployment to increased imbalances between the pattern of labour demand and supply - in other words, to greater mismatch, but existing mismatch indicators do not support this view.

1. Introduction.- 1.1. European Unemployment and the Mismatch Hypothesis.- 1.2. The Conceptual Framework followed in this Book.- 1.3. Overview and Results.- 2. Do Aggregate Measures of Mismatch Measure Mismatch? A Time Series Analysis of Existing Concepts.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. Some Puzzling Evidence.- 2.3. Measuring Mismatch: Theoretical Foundations.- 2.4. Measurement Problems.- 2.5. Disaggregation and Unobserved Heterogeneity.- 2.6. Time Series Analysis.- 2.7. Testing for Unit Roots.- 2.8. On the Magnitude of Drifts in Macroeconomic Mismatch Time Series.- 2.9. Some Simulation Experiments.- 2.10. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix A2.- 3. Disaggregate Matching Functions, Spurious Mismatch and Occupational Reallocation in Germany.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Aggregate Matching Functions: Theoretical Framework.- 3.3. Aggregate Matching Functions in West Germany.- 3.4. Spurious Matching Functions.- 3.5. Disaggregate Matching Functions using a Panel of Occupational Groups.- 3.6. On Occupational Reallocation: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects.- 3.7. Understanding the Matching of Apprentices.- 3.8. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix A3.- 4. Matching and New Technologies: Does Unmeasured Ability Explain the Higher Wages of New-Technology Workers?.- 4.1. Introduction.- 4.2. Matching, Mobility, and Unmeasured Ability.- 4.3. The Micro Datasets: Presentation and Descriptive Analysis.- 4.4. Cross-Sectional Results.- 4.5. Wages and New Technologies: Evidence from Panel Data.- 4.6. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix A4.- 5. Conclusions.- 6. References.

Looking for the sources of European unemployment: Is the mismatch hypothesis valid? All the basics are explained in a simple, straightforward manner The reader is introduced into the theory of spurious mismatch trends