How many 'American jobs' have U.S.-born workers lost due to immigration and offshoring? Or, alternatively, is it possible that immigration and offshoring, by promoting cost-savings and enhanced efficiency in firms, have spurred the creation of jobs for U.S. natives? We consider a multi-sector...

In this paper we develop a neoclassical growth model that aggregates different types of labor skills from strict complementarity to perfect substitution. After having derived general balanced growth conditions and developed explicit growth paths for capital and aggregate labor force, the model...

We document the presence of a trade-off between unemployment benefits (UB) and employment protection legislation (EPL) in the provision of insurance against labour market risk. The mix of quantity restrictions and price regulations adopted by the various countries would seem to correspond to a...

We analyze the interaction among important institutional variables in the labor market (firing costs, minimum wages and unemployment benefits) in determining firm-provided training. We find that the institutional interactions - specifically, their degree of complementarity and substitutability -...

According to EVA's annual attitude and value survey, two out of three Finns believe that globalization means loosing increasing amounts of jobs to low-cost-countries. However, 70 percent of the respondents think that their job is not easily transferrable and only 8 % are afraid that their own...

This paper examines the trends in immigration to and emigration from Finland during the period 1987-2006. The focus is on the 'human capital content' of the migration flows, the key question being: Is Finland losing out in the international competition for highly educated individuals?...

This paper analyses the gender wage gaps by education throughout the wage distribution in Spain using individual data from the ECHP (1999). Quantile regressions are used to estimate the wage returns to the different characteristics at the more relevant percentiles and a suitable version of the...

The extent to which the impact of computer skills depends on how computers are used is investigated using British data from an establishment survey, cohort studies and the European E-Living survey. We examine the importance of activity and frequency of use in these various data sources. We find...

The Finnish comprehensive school reform replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the test scores in the...

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on...