## Why is Unemployment in France so High?

_IMF Working Papers, May 1, 1994_

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Reza Moghadam
- Published: May 1, 1994
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451966589.001

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### Summary
- High and persistent unemployment in France, including high youth unemployment, suggests underlying structural problems in the French labor market.
- Time series and cross-section empirical evidence and comparisons with other industrial countries point to several potential causes of structural unemployment in France.
- The paper assesses recent labor market measures in France as steps in the right direction and proposes additional measures to help ensure unemployment declines more quickly and more substantially with economic recovery.

### Potential causes identified
- Generosity of long-term relative to short-term unemployment benefits.
- The minimum wage.
- The level of employers’ tax wedge.
- Skills mismatch.
- The cost of capital.

### Assessment of recent measures
- Recent labor market measures in France are considered, on the whole, as a step in the right direction (no further detail provided on specific measures in the supplied content).

### Policy recommendations and further measures (as framed by the paper)
- Additional possible measures are put forward to help ensure that when the economic recovery gathers pace, unemployment will decline more quickly and more substantially than in the past (the supplied content does not list these measures individually).

### Publication and metadata (exact values preserved)
- Author: Reza Moghadam
- Publication date: May 1, 1994
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- Series detail: Working Paper No. 1994/058
- Issue: 058
- Volume: 1994
- Pages: 84
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451966589.001
- Stock No: WPIEA0581994
- ISBN: 9781451966589
- ISSN: 1018-5941
- Citation format provided: Reza Moghadam. "Why is Unemployment in France so High?", IMF Working Papers 1994, 058 (1994), accessed 9/17/2026, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451966589.001

*Source: IMF Working Paper "Why is Unemployment in France so High?" by Reza Moghadam (May 1, 1994).*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2016/12/30/why-is-unemployment-in-france-so-high-1029_