Under the standard neo-classical growth framework, conditional convergence studies assume that a country with a higher initial human capital among others ''performs'' better. Nevertheless the growth implications of health, another component of human capital, compared to education, have not been...

This paper analyses the way immigration can help to alleviate the burden ageing presents for the welfare states of most Western Economies. We develop a macroeconomic framework which deals with the impact of both ageing and immigration on economic growth. This is combined with a detailed model of...

We derive several cases of 'comparative advantage in nothing', which can be relevant for East Germany. The simplest case with little relevance is the HO assumption of identical technologies across regions implanted into the Ricardian model. The second is the case with full employment wages...

If government revenues from a flat-rate income tax are spent on public factors and public factors are used for human capital production and human capital is used for the production of technical progress, then a higher rate of taxation will lead to a higher rate of technical progress if steady...

This paper, in its second part, adds the lacking theoretical underpinnings to the literature on exports and growth. It attempts to demonstrate why most of the theoretical analyses of the terms of trade phenomenon has been inadequate from the development point of view. It then presents in its...

We examine the effects of endogenous offshoring on cost-efficiency, wages and unemployment in a task- assignment model with skill heterogeneity. Exact conditions for the following insights are derived. The distributional effect of offshoring (high-) low-skill-intensive tasks is similar to...

This paper analyses the impact of the skill composition of migration flows on the host country's labour market in a specific-factors-two-sector model with heterogeneous labour (low, medium, and high skill) and price- and wage-setting behaviour. The low- and medium-skilled labour markets are...

This paper presents some information on issues that have some importance for those who try to learn from the economic policy of the Netherlands. In particular we discuss the following questions. i) Does growth in the Netherlands differ from that of other Western European countries? ii) In which...

We argue that a conventional double dividend policy - defined as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and unemployment through taxation of energy and CO2 emissions and subsidization of wage costs - and the aim of keeping international competitiveness intact are mutually exclusive concepts. It...

The cost-minimization part of a specific factors model with perfect capital movements and production externalities for both perfect and imperfect competition is used here to explain the growth rate of wages as a function of technical change, terms of trade or import changes, interest rate...