Having grown up in an environment where just about everything – school and college admissions, getting and securing a job, or even receiving a driver's license – turned on knowing the right people or having money, my immigration to the US has been nothing short of an amazing eye-opener on what free market capitalism operating with a substantial decrease in corruption can accomplish. That the US valued individualism and a strong belief that if individuals acted in their own self-interest in a righteous way it would automatically result in societal good, a very Adam Smith-ian approach, both thrilled and scared me. This particular pathway to economic success, moreover, is generally open to one and all – one needed however to embrace the philosophy or the value formula. I also believe that there is an honest attempt here at equalizing opportunities and at becoming better economically as a people. My frequent visits to Germany for teaching and research allowed a personal glimpse into another, quite different pathway to productive citizenship, one where an individual's economic success was more scripted and coordinated by labor supply and labor demand institutions in concert with the government.

With an aging population in the western world and a concomitant increase in dependency ratios, much of the labor market research spotlight has refocused on studying problems in the youth labor market and a search for solutions in the many countries where this problem has become acute. My personal experiences in the US and Germany and my extensive travels across Europe made me think aloud whether (a) the American free-spirit enterprise characterized by risk taking or the coordinated German labor market approach distinguished by trust and cooperation can serve as exemplars for other countries, for example, countries in the Mediterranean region, where youth unemployment rates are well above European averages; and (b) if what I perceive as the national cultures will be accommodative of these approaches.

I realized that this kind of exploration is best done as a joint venture with experts who can provide in situ assessments of their country's youth unemployment problems and the potential for emulating the American or German model. My key role in designing a recently completed cross-country European study on the subject of youth unemployment opened up access to a rich network of colleagues across Europe, colleagues who were enthusiastic in undertaking this explorative journey with me.