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Rebecca Blank

Rebecca M. Blank teaches economics at the University of Michigan, where she is also Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy. She is also the co-director of the National Poverty Center at the Ford School.

Recent Articles

Behind the Numbers: The Misdiagnosis of Eurosclerosis

Champions of the U.S. economic system say that Europe's generous social protections cause high unemployment. But it's the global economy that's driving up joblessness in Europe--just as it increases income inequality in the United States.

Rebecca BlankDec 19, 2001

For two decades, virtually every western European nation

has faced high and persistent unemployment. Many Europeans now

look to the United States as a model of labor market flexibility.

It is argued that Europe's "rigid" policies, encumbering

payrolls with benefit costs, giving workers social rights, and

making them hard to fire, deters European industry from creating

jobs. Conversely, it is said that America, with its lesser levels

of social protection, is a job-creation machine.

The United States, however, displays rising wage inequality not

mirrored in Europe. This has lead some observers to argue that