In this thesis it is analyzed if promoting product market competition can help to to fight unemployment in Europe. We have used a general equilibrium model in order to study how reducing mark-ups and increasing productivity in one sector affect aggregate unemployment for an exogenously given...

How do improvements in information impact market performance? This dissertation examines the effect of an innovative initiative launched by a private company in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October 2000, it set up 1700 internet kiosks and 45 warehouses that provide...

In the debate on the economic effects of labor market regulation much work has focused on minimum wages. A legal minimum wage remains one of the most controversial policy issues. The controversy arises for two main reasons: first, there is no consensus over the economic impacts of the minimum...

The dissertation provides a critical survey of the existingtheoretical and empirical literature on centralisation in wagesetting and analyses employment and welfare effects ofcentralisation in theoretical models with heterogenous firms.Furthermore we estimate the impact of centralisation on...

The high rates of youth unemployment experienced in a number of OECD economies has raised concerns about the effect of this on subsequent earnings. Using the Australian Youth Survey (AYS) a longitudinal survey of Australian youth, we estimate the effects of unemployment on subsequent hourly and...

In this dissertation, I present five dynamic general equilibrium models. The distinguishing feature of these models is that they incorporate reciprocal altruistic behavior into an otherwise standard New Keynesian framework. In particular, I extend the New Keynesian model such that the assumed...

We analyze determinants of regional industry mix and focus especially on the influence of labor market characteristics. By combining a labor market pooling argument with an argument involving the cost of switching a worker from one firm to another, we show that in the presence of product market...