Using historical data, we test the validity of Wagner's law of increasing state activity at different stages of economic development for five industrialized European countries: the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Italy. In order to investigate the coherence between Wagner's law and...

In the wake of the financial crisis, most developed countries have entered a period of prolonged budgetary austerity. While the success of austerity programs is still unclear, it is also an open question what success would mean for activist government in the long run. This paper rejects the...

Rapid decarbonization of whole countries requires additional research, development, and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies. Governments support research, development, and demonstration in this area with various financing instruments. These instruments are frequently assessed by...

Voluntary public unemployment systems are limited to a handful of countries, including Finland, Sweden, and, more substantially, Denmark. A voluntary system has the positive feature of other user-cost schemes, potentially efficient targeting of services. This presumes rational behavior as well...

Fathers in the Nordic countries were among the first in the world to gain the right to paid parental leave. The overall uptake has however been low, despite various attempts to increase it. This paper compares characteristics of fathers in four Nordic countries, to identify important...

Denmark has drawn much attention for its active labor market policies, but is almost unique in offering a voluntary public unemployment insurance program requiring a significant premium payment. A safety net program - a less generous, means-tested social assistance plan - completes the system....