Natural rate theory has dominated interpretations of economic trends and policy prescriptions over many decades, as economists contrasted high unemployment and lower inequality in Europe with the great American job machine. This paper discusses the relationship between skill structure and wage...

The conventional view is that Americans work longer hours than Germans and other Europeans but when time in household production is included, overall working time is very similar on both sides of the Atlantic. Americans spend more time on market work but German invest more in household...

This paper uses data from 20 OECD countries to investigate the impact of welfare state institutions (especially employment protection, wage bargaining and work incentives) on the functioning of the labour market both theoretically and empirically. It shows that the impact of welfare state...