This paper discusses the need and scope for an active fiscal stabilization policy. It is argued that the effectiveness of fiscal policy as a short run stabilizer does not depend on the long run multipliers of (balanced budget) fiscal policies. To the extent that activity can be affected by...

Persistent real effects of nominal shocks is considered in an intertemporal macromodel with capital accumulation and staggered nominal wage contracting. By placing the contracting process in a setting of imperfect competition it becomes possible to avoid the standard problem that intertemporal...

The role of demand management policy is considered in a two-sector open economy model with price-taking firms and imperfect competition in the labor market. Demand management policies are shown to affect the equilibrium distribution of prices and hence output in the case of both supply...

Unemployment insurance schemes include conditions on past employment history as part of the eligibility conditions. This aspect is often neglected in the literature which primarily focuses on benefit levels and benefit duration. In a search-matching framework we show that benefit duration and...