The paper shows how prolonged price inertia can arise in a macroeconomic system in which there are temporary price rigidities as well as production lags in the use of intermediate goods. In this context, changes in production demand - generated, say, by changes in the money supply - have...

The paper examines the implications of an important aspect of the ongoing reorganization of work - the move from occupational specialization toward multi-tasking - for centralized wage bargaining. The analysis shows how, on account of this reorganization, centralized bargaining becomes...

Sweden experienced exeptionally fast economic growth during the century-long period 1870-1970. This illustrates that a decentralized market economy, highly open to international transactions, may be quite conductive to sustained productivity growth if the government fulfills its "classical"...

Developing countries, in particular the least developed ones, probably have more to learn from social policies in Europe during the early 20th century than from the elaborate welfare-state arrangements after World War II. In addition to macro­economic growth and stability, the main ambitions...

How do we explain the poor employment performance in Western Europe since about the-1970s? This question is in fact twofold : What initiated the dramatic rise in employment, and waht mechanisms have made it continue for so long? My attemps to answer these questions from the basis for a...

This paper analyzes the interplay between economic incentives and social norms in a public finance context. We assume that to live off one's own work is a social norm, and that the larger the population fraction adhering to this norm, the more intensely it is felt by the individual. It is shown...

This paper analyzes the interplay between social norms and economic incentives in the context of work decisions in the modern welfare state. We assume that to live off one's own work is a social norm, and that the larger the population fraction adhering to this norm, the more intensely it is...

This paper deals with economic incentives and welfare-state arrangements in OECD countries. This paper emphasises what may be called "dynamic" incentive issues, i.e. incentive effects that envolve over time. The discussion also covers the interplay between incentives and social norms among...

In what follows, we examine the consequences of the development for the reorganization of work, the breack-down of occupational barriers, the transformation of job opportunities, and the implications for inequality in the labor market.

What were the asserted complementarities between the welfare state and full-employment policies, and why do these complementarities look less convincing today?