Observed fiscal policy varies greatly across time and countries. How can we explain this
variation? This paper surveys the recent literature that has tried to answer this question. We …

What determines the size and form of redistributive programs, the extent and type of public
goods provision, the burden of taxation across alternative tax bases, the size of government …

Social norms are usually neglected in economics, because they are to a large extent
enforced through nonmarket interactions and difficult to isolate empirically. In this paper, we …

We introduce a new data set on hiring and firing restrictions for 21 OECD countries for the
period 1984–1990. The data are based on surveys of business people in the countries …

According to most orthodox economists, labour market rigidities are the key culprit for such
high unemployment as has been observed in Europe during the past three decades. But …

This paper provides an analytical characterization of Markov perfect equilibria in a model
with repeated voting, where agents vote over distortionary income redistribution. A key result …

This paper offers an explanation for the evolution of wage inequality within and between
industries and education groups over the past several decades. The model is based on the …

With the aim to provide guidelines for countries wishing to introduce or improve income
support systems for the unemployed, the book summarizes the evidence about the …

Much has been written about institutional differences between European and North
American labor markets, and about their role in determining the large and persistent …

Executive summary In recent decades, unemployment has become a serious problem in
many parts of the world, and the task of helping the unemployed has gained increased …