How does international integration affect the welfare state? Does it call for a leaner welfare state to reap the benefits of integraiton or is it necessary to expand the welfare state to offset some negative consequences of international integration? This paper addresses these issues in a fully...

Increasing longevity causes an upward trend in the dependency ratio in many countries. This raises concerns about the financial sustainability of social security schemes, and reform proposals and initiatives abound. It is shown that a fundamental policy choice inevitably arises since a given...

The role of real and nominal propagation mechanisms in generating persistent real effects of nominal shocks is analysed analytically in a fully specified intertemporal general equilibrium model. While neither a real propagation mechanism (capital acccumulation) with one-period nominal contracts...

It is vividly debated how the ongoing process of European integration will affect the need and scope for welfare state activities. To some this process signals that welfare state activities have to be rolled back, while others stress that international integration may increase the need for...