This paper surveys major empirical regularities concerning changes in earnings inequality in Europe and the US over the past 25 years. Next, it indicates which of these regularities can be explained within the competitive demand-supply framework of analysis and what is left unexplained. Finally,...

This paper discusses how employment vouchers should depend on age in a simple overlapping generations model in which workers are either young or old. We find that young workers should receive higher vouchers as displacement of the old rises and as the deadweight loss from providing vouchers to...

This paper presents an overview of the application of the mathematical theory of 'high-low' search to firms' pricing and production decisions. We show how this methodology can be used to determine an optimal sequence of price-quantity decisions by a firm through time. We suppose that the firm...

This proposal involves the establishment of ‘welfare accounts’ for every person in a country. There are four accounts: a retirement account (covering pensions), an unemployment account (covering unemployment support), a human capital account (covering education and training), and a health...

The paper examines the possible effects of introducing a large-scale welfare reform in Sweden, namely, the introduction of comprehensive welfare accounts. Under this policy, individuals make mandatory contributions to accounts, which they can top up with voluntary contributions. In return,...

This paper explores the interrelation between the degree of unemployment persistence and the unemployment-productivity trade-off. The analysis suggests that the more effective are structural labour market policies (designed to change labour market institutions and laws, such as job security...

This paper examines the implications of different types of employment subsidies for employment, welfare, and inequality. It investigates how these effects depend on what target groups the subsidies address. Our analysis focuses on policies that are "approximately welfare efficient" (AWE), i.e....