Structural reforms without Prejudices

This book offers unorthodox insights on an orthodox prescription. It dwells on the pros and cons of structural reforms in product and labour markets trying to find out why they are recommended by most economists and international organisations, but are rarely implemented or carried out at a very slow pace. There is no a priori about the net benefits of the reforms. The book is deliberately not reticent in highlighting the costs of these reforms since these costs may contribute to explain why reforms are so difficult to implement. We are largely in the domain of positive economics: reforms and their effects are described, rather than recommended. Policy prescriptions are relegated to the final chapters of each part and to the comments.