Migration is vividly considered to be a particular challenge for extended welfare states like the Nordics since high taxes and entitlement to the social safety net and provision of welfare services may create both pull and push effects in migration. The financial viability of the model is...

Using linked employer-employee data combined with administrative data on debt enforcement, we analyze the impact of job loss on debt problems in Finland, where even 50% of income may be subject to wage garnishment for up to 25 years. Our results show that job loss, defined by plant closures and...

An idée fixe of Great Moderation economic policy was that central banks are only effective macroeconomic managers when they are segregated from electoral politics. That idea made a swift transition from radical heterodoxy to commonsensical orthodoxy during the 1980s and proved remarkably...

Why is in-kind aid a prominent feature of welfare systems? We present a lab-in-the-field experiment involving members of the general U.S. population and SNAP recipients. After documenting a widespread desire to limit recipients' choices, we quantify the relative importance of (i) welfarist...

This article examines the contentious debate surrounding Universal Basic Income (UBI)-an unconditional, equal, and permanent cash payment providing basic needs for all citizens-from an ideological left-right perspective. It analyzes key arguments made by proponents and opponents on both sides,...

Why is in-kind aid a prominent feature of welfare systems? We present a lab-in-the-field experiment involving members of the general U.S. population and SNAP recipients. After documenting a widespread desire to limit recipients’ choices, we quantify the relative importance of (i) welfarist...