The paper describes the Swedish wage distribution and how it correlates with worker mobility and plant-specific factors. It is well known that wage inequality has increased in Sweden since the mid-1980s. However, little evidence has so far been available as to whether this development reflects...

We study income responses to income tax changes by using a large panel of Swedish tax payers over the period 1991–2002. Changes in statutory tax rates as well as discretionary changes in tax bracket thresholds provide exogenous variations in tax rates that can be used to identify income...

The paper develops a two-sector general equilibrium search model where 'goods' are produced exclusively in the market and 'services' are produced both in the market and within the households. We use the model to examine how unemployment and welfare are affected by labor taxes in general and...

This paper analyzes union behavior in a model w ith uncertainty aboutaggregate labor demand. When uncertainty is resolved, the labor market may be in excess demand or excess supply at the preset contractual wage. Wage drift occurs if excess demand is realized and the union's wage demand takes...

This paper examines the effects of profit sharing in an economy with decentralized wage bargaining. Profit sharing makes workers' income more sensitive to wage changes, and this leads to wage moderation. But economywide profit sharing may also improve workers' outside income opportunities, and...

Sectoral tax differentiation has in recent years appeared on the agenda in European policy discussions concerning unemployment. The member countries of the European Union are allowed to reduce the value added tax rates on goods and services that are particularly labour intensive and price...

The paper presents a tractable general equilibrium model of search unemployment that incorporates absence from work as a distinct labor force state. Absenteeism is driven by random shocks to the value of leisure that are private information to the workers. Firms offer wages, and possibly sick...

Conventional models of equilibrium unemployment typically imply that proportional taxes on labor earnings are neutral with respect to unemployment as long as the tax does not affect the replacement rate provided by unemployment insurance, i.e., unemployment benefits relative to after-tax...

Self-employed individuals have arguably greater opportunities than wage earners to underreport their incomes. The incentives for underreporting should be especially strong in an economy with generally high taxes. This paper uses recent income and expenditure data to examine the extent of...

One goal of the public employment service is to facilitate matching between unemployed job seekers and job vacancies; another goal is to monitor job search so as to bring search efforts among the unemployed in line with search requirements. The referral of job seekers to vacancies is one...