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...

Restraints on the public budget limit the ability of the public sector to use financial markets for intertemporal substitution. This interferes with the role of the public budget as a buffer which provides insurance and possibly stabilizes income and thereby private consumption. We consider this...

Increasing longevity causes an upward trend in the dependency ratio in many countries. This raises concerns about the financial sustainability of social security schemes, and reform initiatives and proposals abound. It is shown that a fundamental policy choice inevitably arises since a given...

This paper develops a theory of the two-armed intergenerational welfare state, consistent with key features of modern welfare arrangements, and uses it to rationalise the rise and fall in generosity of pay-as-you-go pensions solely on efficiency grounds. By using the education arm, a...