N. Vyshnevskaya, PhD in Economics, Lead Specialist of the SU-HSE Centre for Labour Studies

In the mid-1990s, the OECD formulated a set of policy recommendations intended to improve labour market performance. The article provides a detailed analysis of labour market reforms in member countries over the past ten years. It attempts to rank countries according with past reform efforts. Over the past decade member countries have employed very diverse reform strategies, from comprehensive reforms package (Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands) to reforms more narrowly targeted on specific fields. The intensity of reforms has differed markedly across policy fields, with more action being undertaken in areas that are more widely accepted by the population, such as active labour market policies and cuts of labour taxes. While reforms in such areas as employment protection legislation and wage-setting institutions have often been partial and even sometimes counter-productive.