The book has four principal objectives: 1) to establish the link between macroeconomic performance in the product market and the in labor market and to argue for the role of unemployment protection; 2) to provide an overview of UC programs throughout the world, including case studies of individual countries in four specific regions that highlight the unique difficulties facing UC programs in each of four regions; 3) to introduce the reader to the issue of actuarial costs of UC programs; and 4) to discuss three important problem areas facing UCcoverage, continuing benefit eligibility, and policies to shorten the duration of unemployment and UC benefit duration.