This paper analyzes the evolution of industrial competitiveness in Sweden and Finland in a long-term perspective. The first part looks at the foundations for industrial take-off in Sweden, with some focus on the development of institutions for the creation and dissemination of the skills and...

Effort-biased technological change and other explanations for work intensification are investigated. It is hypothesised that technological and organizational changes are one important source of work intensification and supportive evidence is found using establishment data for Britain in the...

We analyse an economy where managers engage both in the adoption of technologies from the world frontier and in innovation activities. The selection of high-skill managers is more important for innovation activities. As the economy approaches the technology frontier, selection becomes more...

How do national minimum wages affect global economic growth? We address this question in a two-country endogenous growth model with capital mobility that emphasizes a link between wages, savings and growth. We identify the conditions on technology and national preferences that determine whether...

Energy system models based on experience curves are superior to conventional models in their treatment of the dynamics of technological development. However, assuming perfect foresight means that future learning rates are known with certainty, which is not realistic. An optimising model for the...

A macroeconomic model can depict employment only if it includes an account of the organisation of production. Keynes and many Keynesian writers have retained a neoclassical view of production, with fixed, technically efficient production functions; such a view is restrictive and neglects the...