Economic growth depends on human resources and human needs. The demographic age structure shapes both of these factors. We study five-year data from the OECD countries 1950-90 in the framework of a human capital augmented neoclassical growth model with gradual technical adjustment due to...

We study the Becker and Lewis (1973) quantity–quality model of children adding an explicit child care time constraint for parents. They can purchase day care or take care of the children themselves. Our results are: (i) If there is a combination of purchased and own care, the effect of income...

In practical applications of micro simulation models very little is usually known about the properties of the simulated values. This paper argues that we need to apply the same rigorous standards for inference in micro simulation work as in scientific work generally. If not, then micro...

In this paper I test two models of strategic debt behavior. The general idea is that if a government anticipates the possibility of defeat in the next election it will try to use the debt strategically in order to influence the policy of its successor. Previous empirical studies have either...

We analyze a model where the federal government provides risk sharing arrangements to municipalities investing in a local public good. The risk sharing arrangements are an income equalization system and a system allowing for a soft budget constraint, i.e., a bailout. Our main result is that a...

This paper studies the influence of debt financing on the investment behavior of firms. The empirical analysis is based on the Euler equation governing the optimal level of investment in the presence of convex adjustment costs of capital as well as agency costs associated with borrowing in...

A parsimonious structural model of price and quantity dynamics is applied to Swedish exports and export prices for manufactured goods 1972-1996. Two sources of dynamics are considered: customer markets and pre-set prices. The dynamic adjustment of exports is very much in line with what the...

We propose a way to model firm mergers using a matching game known as the roommate problem, whereby firms are assumed to make preference rankings of potential merger partners. The position of a firm in another firm's ranking is assumed to be governed by an index, which in turn consists of a...

The paper presents a tractable general equilibrium model of search unemployment that incorporates absence from work as a distinct labor force state. Absenteeism is driven by random shocks to the value of leisure that are private information to the workers. Firms offer wages, and possibly sick...

Micro-simulation is an approach to analyze the impact of economic and social policy on the distribution of target variables, not just on the means. It easily includes the true policy instruments and handles highly nonlinear relations. Most models currently used in policy analysis are static and...