We consider a model where a given number of firms decide on a pollution-reducing production technology, and then hire workers who subsequently form a monopoly union which sets the wage. We study the possibility of "double dividents", i.e. simultaneous reduction in pollution and increases in...

In recent years, the OECD has measured the structural rate of unemployment by an indicator called the Non-Accelerating Wage Rate of Unemployment. The NAWRU-indicator is an important element in the policy analysis of the OECD. The rise in the estimated NAWRUs is also taken as evidence that Nordic...

The regional unemployment elasticity of annual earnings for Non-OECD immigrants is found to be more than three times larger than for natives, using micro data covering all immigrants in Norway in 1990 and a random sample of natives. The decline in relative earnings of Non-OECD immigrants from...

Using a set of panel data for manufacturing plants we study how payrll taxes and investment subsidies affect wages and demand for labor and capital. We exploit changes in the regional subsidy schemes for labor anf capital in Norway. Our empirical analysis finds that a large part of changes in...

We construct a model integrating the efficiency wage model of Shapiro-Stiglitz (1984) with the matching-bargaining models of Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides (DMP). Firms and workers form pairwise matches, workers may shirk on the job, and the wage is set in an asymmetric Nash bargain over the...

The system of wage setting in the Nordic countries is often regarded as highly centralised, contributing to considerable real wage flexibility. This view has been questioned, as the sizeable wage drift may offset the effect of the central negociations. This paper presents evidence from the four...

We study the effects of mobility costs in a model of wage bargaining between workers and firms, where there is instantaneous matching, free firm entry, heterogeneous labour, and workers' individual productivities are discovered by firms only after being hired. We derive the employment level and...

Despite some reductions in the male-female pay gap in the post-war period, gender differentials seem to persist in all industrial countries. This is also the case in the Scandinavian countries where the wage dispersion hase been compressed as a consequence of a "solidaric wage policy".