The authors develop an equilibrium search-matching model with risk-neutral agents and two-sided ex-ante heterogeneity. Unemployment insurance has the standard effect of reducing employment but also helps workers to get a suitable job. They show, through calibrations, how the mere difference on...

A general equilibrium model based on the parable of an economy of many islands shows that market imperfections in the intermediation activity affect economic growth and possibly prevent take-off into sustained growth. The inhabitants of different islands accumulate heterogeneous assets and...

This article investigates the evolution of quality-adjusted prices for servers motivated by two facts. First, the recent productivity acceleration in the US is closely linked to the spread of IT of which networked computing is a large component. Second, the growth of network computing itself has...

With increasing globalisation of knowledge, there are increased opportunities to 'learn' from the experience of policy interventions elsewhere. This paper presents evidence on the extent of international convergence in public policy, with particular focus on labour, welfare, savings and...

Analysing the new IFS-Leverhulme database on over 200 major British firms since 1968 we show that patents have an economically and statistically significant impact on firm-level productivity and market value. While patenting feeds into market values immediately it appears to have a slower effect...

We analyse the welfare effects of policies that intensify product market competition, and the channels through which they operate. Using a circular model of horizontal product differentiation with asymmetric costs, we study the effects of increased price competition on market selection among...

I review the two most popular explanations for the differential trends in wage inequality in US/UK and Europe: that relative supply of skills increased faster in Europe, and that European labour market institutions prevented inequality from increasing. Although these explanations go some way...