Although many of the worst performing countries over the post-World War II period were autocracies, many of the best were likewise autocratic. At the same time, no long-lived autocracy currently is rich whereas every long-lived democracy is. This paper proposes a theory to account for these...

Using SIPRI data on all international transfers of major conventional weapons 1950–2007, we study the relationship between differences in polity and arms trade. To study whether states tend to trade arms within their political vicinity we estimate gravity models of the likelihood of trade at...

We investigate the impact of inflation targeting and central bank independence on wage formation and unemployment using a panel of 20 OECD countries from 1982-2003. The results suggest that monetary institutions matter for wage formation. Real wages are on average higher under inflation...

Starting from the theoretical argument underlying the “hump shape” hypothesis, the paper investigates the various dimensions of centralisation in the wage formation process. The diversity of effects discussed in the paper makes it harder to arrive at unambiguous policy conclusions. Careful...

It is a common view that labor market programs reduce unemployment and restrain wages by increasing the competition for jobs. The Swedish case is often advanced as a blueprint to follow. This article questions the conventional wisdom on the Swedish labor-market policies. It finds empirical...

The issue of low-wage competition in services trade involving posted workers is controversial in the EU. Using Swedish survey data, people's attitudes are found to be more negative to such trade than to goods trade. The differences depend on both a preference for favouring social groups to which...