Using a two-sector-two-country model with aggregate scale economies and unionisation, we show that optimal welfare state policy entails positive levels of unemployment benefits under free-trade and capital mobility. In this setting, economic integration does not reduce the revenue raising...

The World Trade Organization, which came into existence at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, is in charge of administering a plethora of new trade rules. The main thrust of the new rules is to reduce or abolish tariffs and quotas on a wide range of products. Some tariffs and quotas were...

The objective of the paper is to answer an often-asked question : if tariff rates are reduced, what will happen to wage inequality ? We consider two types of wage inequality : between occupations (skills premium), and between industries. We use two large data bases of wage inequality that have...

The objective of the paper is to answer an often-asked question : if tariff rates are reduced, what will happen to wage inequality ? We consider two types of wage inequality : between occupations (skills premium), and between industries. We use two large data bases of wage inequality that have...

La réduction de la croissance économique pendant ces dernières années a provoqué un renouveau d'intérêt en ce qui concerne le poids de la présence de l'État, surtout dans les économie européennes. Il ne suffit pas d'insister sur le poids excessive de l'Etat. Il faut le prouver et dire...

This paper examines the role of money in market and centrally planned economies. It then proposes a program and sequence of institutional, macroeconomic and monetary reform aimed at achieving a stable transition. An egalitarian redistribution of the state's custodial assets to its citizens is...

Travel time losses in the Netherlands are likely to get worse in the years ahead if capacity is not added to cope with the demand. This particularly creates problems for business travel, which is characterized by a high “value of time”. In the Netherlands, policy makers have a long-standing...

This paper tests the stability of the U.S. federal intertemporal budget constraint over the postwar period. The implied equilibrium budget path is estimated and used to determine which component of the budget has greater responsibility for the recent intertemporal violations.

The transition from a planned to a market oriented economy requires a complex amalgam of stabilization, liberalization and privatization policies. This paper outlines a combination of policies believed to be necessary, if not sufficient to enlist the efficiency of market mechanisms along with a...

In a framework similar to the models of expectation on economic policy, we purpose a model where the government subsidizes firms privatized by massive giveaways to the managers who are empire- builders. The government injects funds because its aim is to avoid a drastic fall of output when a...