Johan Åkerman and Erik Dahmén’s structural theory of economic fluctuations is a constructive alternative to traditional macroeconomic approaches and also to modern business-cycle models based on micro economic concepts. There are similarities between Åkerman and Dahmén’s theory and...

Canzoneri and Diba (2004) show that the Taylor principle is not a panacea for equilibrium determinacy in a model where bonds and money provide liquidity services to households. We consider a cashless variant of their model with two types of government bonds. One bond provides transaction...

This paper discusses ways in which the next climate agreement ­ a renegotiated <p> Kyoto Protocol or a second-period agreement ­ can be made more cost-effective. The <p> discussion focuses on the design of international emissions trading to facilitate early <p> participation by developing countries....</p></p></p>

It has long been argued that trade restrictions can be motivated by insurance considerations in the absence of full risk diversification. Recent theoretical research suggests that markets for risk can alleviate resistance to reform and protectionist lobby group pressure. We empirically address...

We study the term structure implications of the fiscal theory of price level determination. We introduce the intertemporal budget constraint of the government in a general equilibrium model in continuous time. Fiscal policy is set according to a simple rule whereby taxes react proportionally to...

Based on unique Swedish historical panel data on voluntary Swedish sick insurance societies 1902-1910, we test the hypothesis od economies of scale in sick insurance provision. We report results indicating that pure insurance societies charging only premium ex ante do not exhibit returns to...

The marginal cost of public funds defined as the ratio between the shadow price of tax revenues and the population average of the social marginal utility of income, is analysed within an explicit cost–benefit context. It is shown that for an optimal tax system the measure is always equal to...

This paper addresses the impact of the tax system on the incentives to become self-employed. The new approach here is that the creation of a firm is assumed to be an opportunity but not an obligation, that is, a real option. A comprehensive income tax system and a "dual" tax system of the Nordic...

This note considers preference structures over countable sets which allow incomparable outcomes and nontransitive preferences and indifferences. Necessary and sufficient conditions are provided under which such a preference structure can be represented by means of utility function and a...

It has been widely accepted that politically induced variance can be generated when the wage contract is written before an election. In this paper, we show that inflation contracts and inflation targets can eliminate both the inflation bias and politically induced variance, if electoral...