Insufficiently flexible labour markets combined with high welfare costs are often thought to be the main cause of unsatisfactory growth in Europe. This paper uses the OECD data on regulation of the product and labour market to confirm the difference in the extent of regulation between US and...

The economic performance of European countries was in general disappointing in the nineties. However, country difference increased, as it was that in some European countries economic growth and productivity accelerated or could match US rates. This paper uses a broad set of performance...

Economic performance in developed economies diverged in the nineties, with some countries enjoying high growth in output and accelerating growth in productivity. Ireland excelled in many respects and some Nordic European countries recovered from a serious crisis and successfully regained strong...

Inflexible labour markets combined with high welfare costs are often thought to be the main cause of low growth in Europe. This paper uses OECD data to assess the relative impact of regulation on differences in economic performance across countries since 1990. The impact of regulation is...

This paper analyses the main characteristics of the European Socio-Economic Model. We discuss how the model varies across countries within Europe, examine how the model has changed over time and compare the European model with the corresponding US model. While the differences with regard of...

The paper characterises a number of welfare state models in the tradition of Esping-Andersen, analysing the economic and social performance of these different welfare regimes on an encompassing empirical basis both in the long run and with respect to their adaptability to the challenges of the...

The remarkable success of Sweden over the past 15 years has come after decades of sluggish growth, during which Sweden managed to lose its substantial lead in per-capita income. This substantiates the view that welfare cost and high taxes reduce growth and endanger competitiveness. Since then,...

The European Union is a successful integration experiment, with an increasing number of member countries and an unexpected depth of integration. According to many indicators, it is the largest economic region in the world, leading in many "beyond GDP" indicators representing well being including...

It is by now widely accepted that the structural characteristics of the countries to become the euro area did not adhere to the conditions of an optimum currency area (OCA) when the euro was introduced in 1999. However, the satisfaction of OCA criteria may not be required for a workable currency...