In this paper we introduce the concept of productive systems. Assuming a complementarity between skills and technology (more 'complex' technologies are intrinsically more productive but they require a more skilled labour force) and gains from the division of labor, firms face a trade-off between...

According to Blau and Kahn (1996) international differences in male wage inequality cannot be explained by a simple model of supply and demand for skill. We provide compelling evidence that this conclusion is due to employing an inappropriate measure of skill. Their measure is based on the...

This paper examines demand for union membership amongst young workers in Britain, Canada and the United States. The paper benchmarks youth demands for collective representation against those of adult workers and finds that a large and significant representation gap exists in all three countries....

One outstanding macroeconomic feature of the past twenty years is the divergent employment growth of the USA and Europe. This paper investigates this, highlighting the nature of the differences and focusing on the flexibility of labour markets and the capability of an economy to reallocate...

Entrepreneurs are believed to be the ultimate engine of modern economic systems. Yet, the study ofentrepreneurship suffers from the lack of consensus on the most crucial question: what makes anentrepreneur? A recent theory developed by Edward Lazear suggests that individuals mastering abalanced...

The reasons for the growth of inter-enterprise debt analyzed. It is suggested that it results mainly from the appearance of normal trade credit in a liberalized economy, and when a monetary squeeze is part of a non-credible stabilization attempt. In the latter case the results can be a sharp...

This paper provides some evidence against the rational expectations-permanent income model of consumption behaviour and the Ricardian Equivalence proposition by testing the responsiveness of spending to the implementation of pre-announced changes in income tax. Extending the work of Summer...

The paper uses a model of growth and imperfect capital mobility across multiple economies to characterize the dynamics of (cross-country) income distributions. This allows convenient study of the convergence hypothesis, ad reveals, where appropriate, polarization and clumping within subgroups....

Most managers enjoy considerable discretion and protection from possible interventions which enables them to look after their own interests. This is often attributed to the dispersion of shareholders and regulations that deter effective outside interventions. This paper presents a model that has...

Consumer confidence is found to have predictive content for a wide range of macroeconomic variables including consumption growth, contrary to standard REPIH. We find that on UK data the REPIH is rejected due to the predictive content of consumer confidence, and not labour income. We explain this...