The strong correlation between child care and maternal employment rates has led previous research to conclude that affordable and readily available child care is a driving force both of cross-country differences in maternal employment and of its rapid growth over the last decades. We analyze the...

Many developed countries currently consider a move towards a universal child care program. The challenge in assessing the case for universal child care programs is that the evidence base is scarce. We analyze the staged expansion of subsidized, universally accessible child care in Norway. Our...

There is a heated debate in the US, Canada and many European countries about introducing universally accessible child care. However, studies on universal child care and child development are scarce and only consider short-run outcomes. We analyze the introduction of universal child care in...

Using two Dutch labour force surveys, employment assimilation of immigrants is examined. We observe marked differences between immigrants by source country. Non-western immigrants never reach parity with native Dutch. Even second generation immigrants never fully catch up. Caribbean immigrants,...

This paper studies the relevance of social interactions among the unemployed. Identification is based on a salient and selective extension of the potential duration of unemployment benefits. If social interactions are important, this policy change affects entitled individuals not only directly,...

Why do individuals choose different types of post-secondary education, and what are the labor market consequences of those choices? We show that answering these questions is difficult because individuals choose between several unordered alternatives. Even with a valid instrument for every type...

Professor Leif Johansen (1930 - 1982) made significant contributions to a large number of fields in economics. A short survey of his contributions is presented. The main focus in the paper is on his growth - production program constituting an important part of his research. The key concepts are...

Benchmarking by means of applying the DEA model is appearing as an interesting alternative for regulators under the new regimes for electricity distributors. A sample of large electricity distribution utilities from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands for the year 1997 is...

The performance of local tax offices of Norway is studied over a three year period applying Data Envelopment Efficiency analysis and a Malmquist productivity index. The estimates are biascorrected using a bootstrap approach recently developed for DEA models. The results show that bias correction...

The municipalities in Norway are responsible for providing care for their inhabitants in need. The care takes two main forms: institutionalised care in nursing homes and home-based care. Based on cross-section data for 1995 for 471 municipalities the efficiency of the care activity is...