This paper studies the impact of income inequality on the level of innovative activities in a model where innovations result in quality improvements. The market for quality goods is characterized by a natural oligopoly with three types of consumers - rich, middle class and poor. In general, we...

The paper proposes an intertemporal equilibrium model with monopolistic competition and free entry to explain the nexus between business formation and medium run growth. An investment externality is identified that results in underaccumulation of capital in the decentralized market equilibrium...

We consider the dynamic relationship between product market entry regulation and equilibrium unemployment. The main theoretical contribution is combining a job matching model with monopolistic competition in the goods market and individual bargaining. We calibrate the model to US data and...

The paper provides a theoretical rationale for flexicurity policies, which consist of low employment protection, generous unemployment insurance and active labor market programmes. It analyzes in which conditions flexicurity can be optimal. Low employment protection encourages costly education...

This paper presents models of growth, which put the neoclassical and neo-Schumpetarian growth models in a unified framework. In doing so, it is argued that these two views of growth, one based on factor accumulation and the other based on innovation, are complementary in that they may capture...

This paper examines patent protection in an endogenous-growth model. Our aim is twofold. First, we show how the patent policies discussed by the recent patent-design literature can influence R&D in the endogenous-growth framework, where the role of patents has been largely ignored. Second, we...

In this paper we investigate how fertility decisions respond to unexpected career interruptions which occur as a consequence of job displacement. Using an event study approach we compare the birth rates of displaced women with those of women unaffected by job loss after establishing the...

We use firm closure data for Austria 1978-1998 to investigate the effect of age on employment prospects. We rely on exact matching to compare workers displaced by firm closure with similar non-displaced workers. We then use a difference-in-difference strategy to analyze employment and earnings...

We study whether employment prospects of old and young workers differ after a plant closure. Using Austrian administrative data, we show that old and young workers face similar displacement costs in terms of employment in the long-run, but old workers lose considerably more initially and gain...

A parsimonious search and matching model of the labor market with endogenous separation is embedded in a North-North intermediate goods trade framework. International product market integration leads to redistribution of market shares from 'weak' to 'strong' firms within an industry, implying...