This paper examines the contemporaneous relationship between the exchange rate regime and structural economic reforms over a period of 30 years. We investigate empirically whether structural reforms are complements or substitutes for monetary commitment in the attempt to improve macroeconomic...

Labor market performance has differed considerably between OECD countries over the last two decades. The focus of the literature so far has been to ask whether these differences can be explained by varying degrees of labor market rigidities and generosity of welfare states. This paper takes a...

This study examines whether health care is affected by Baumol’s cost disease in a scenario of no growth. Baumol's model implies that stagnant sectors are driven by wage increases in excess of productivity growth. But in a no growth economy the income is constant. It is investigated in two...

This chapter reviews topics related to the demand for health insurance, including the question of how choice of health insurance should be structured for consumers. After the first section summarizes some of the institutional features of health insurance in high- and middle-income countries, a...

The public economic burden of shifting trends in population health remains uncertain. Sustained increases in obesity, diabetes, and other diseases could reduce life expectancy - with a concomitant decrease in the public-sector's annuity burden - but these savings may be offset by worsening...