Women work much more in the US than in Germany and most other EU economies. We find that theUS¿German employment gap is not strongly related to cross-country differences in the level of pay orsocial benefits. The difference in employment is due to the different marketization of activities...

Problems arise if budgets for services are held constant whilst prices rise. Education, cultural activities and health services are under constant budgetary pressure. The authors argue that the price of commodities is linked to demand and price increases would therefore seem to threaten the very...