CELSI coorganized with the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn (IZA), Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic (IFP) and Council for Budget Responsibility (CBR) a conference on "Fiscal Policy Tools and Labor Markets during the Great Recession". The conference took place on 26th-27th October 2015 in Bratislava.

The main objective of the conference was to discuss the cutting-edge evidence on the role of fiscal policies - including taxes, social insurance, benefits and public spending programs - in stabilization of labor markets under asymmetric economic shocks. The emphasis had been put on the effects of fiscal policy tools on labor supply, labor demand, employment and (long-term) unemployment, skill matching, and wage adjustment.

Labor supply and demand responses, wage flexibility, and institutional factors have been shaping the adjustment of European labor markets to systemic and idiosyncratic economic shocks during the Great Recession. To revisit how fiscal policy has affected labor market adjustment during the Great Recession, and what policy toolbox might governments have at hand to achieve favorable outcomes, seek research papers for a joint conference.

In the first panel chaired by Martin Kahanec of CELSI titled "Employment and Inequality Effects across the EU", Christian Bredemeier, Eric Sommer, Michal Habrman and Tim Callan presented their research. The panel addressed: Man-cessions, Fiscal Policy, and the Gender Composition of Employment, Micro-based Participation Elasticities: New International Evidence, Institutional Drivers of NAIRU and The Great Recession, Austerity and Inequality: Evidence from Ireland.

The keynote speeches were given by Torben M. Andersen (Aarhus University and IZA) on "Automatic Stabilizers - the Intersection of Labour Market and Fiscal Policies" and Juan J. Jimeno (Bank of Spain and IZA) on "Structural Reforms in Europe during the Great Recession: Lessons and Challenges".

Program of the conference is available here: http://www.iza.org/conference_files/EuroLaborMarkets_2015/viewProgram?conf_id=2800