Globalisation and Inter‐occupational Inequality: Empirical Evidence from OECD Countries

How does globalisation affect inter‐occupational wage inequality within countries? This paper examines this by focusing on two dimensions of globalisation: openness to trade and openness to capital flows, using a relatively new data set on occupational wages. Estimates from a dynamic model for 15 OECD countries spanning the period 1983–2003 suggest that increased openness increases occupational wage inequality in poorer OECD countries as predicted by the Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson model, but for the more advanced OECD countries, we find no significant effect. The absence of the expected result for the latter category can be due to a rapid increase in the supply of skilled labour, to outsourcing of skilled jobs or because changes in the trade flows are too small to have any significant effect in those countries.     

A note on distribution analysis in a linear programming model

A linear programming model is used to examine the correspondence between population projections for the provinces and projections for production sectors in Sweden. Furthermore the model is used for analyzing the conflict between the two objectives – regional equality in per capita income and minimal investment requirements. The calculations of the model show that it is possible simultaneously to attain the production targets for the sectors and the population targets for the provinces. The cost in terms of investment resources for a reduction of the difference in regional income is comparatively modest at the beginning of the equalization process bu the cost increases sharply as the equalization process proceeds. Finally a comparison is made with an extended dynamized version of the model also including transportation costs.     

Risk Sharing in Labor Markets

Empirical work in labor economics has focused on rent sharingas an explanation for the observed correlation between wagesand profitability. The alternative explanation of risk sharingbetween workers and employers has not been tested. Using a uniquepanel data set for four African countries, we find strong evidenceof risk sharing. Workers in effect offer insurance to employers:when firms are hit by temporary shocks, the effect on profitsis cushioned by risk sharing with workers. Rent sharing is asymptom of an inefficient labor market. Risk sharing, by contrast,can be seen as an efficient response to missing markets. Ourevidence suggests that risk sharing accounts for a substantialpart of the observed effect of shocks on wages.     

Greening of Danish Industry - Changes in Concepts and Policies

Cleaner technology and pollution prevention have been cornerstones in the Danish environmental policy since the late 1980s. They have become an integral part of a multifaceted process of the 'greening of industry' involving changes in production, products and in the environmental strategies of companies, as well as in governmental regulation and policies. Companies, industrial associations, consultants and different governmental bodies have established new relations and networks to support the greening process and gradually a broad range of actors and patterns of interactions have emerged, linking technological and institutional innovations as well as economic and environmental issues in new ways. Based on several evaluations of Danish governmental support schemes for the introduction of cleaner technology and environmental management, this article will outline the major changes in the discourse on pollution prevention and in the policy instruments applied.     

The financial crisis in Norway: effects on financial markets and measures taken

This article guides through the measures implemented in Norway in order to dampen negative effects stemming from the financial crisis. We also discuss some features of the Norwegian money market and the liquidity system in Norway. From the point of view of central banks, the widening gap between money market rates and the key policy rate has been one disturbing element of the financial crises. We develop a simple model, which illustrates how developments in forward exchange premiums can provide insight as to why money market premiums differ across currencies. The model shows that the excess supply of term liquidity in dollar relative to the excess supply of term liquidity in other currencies has an impact on the domestic money market premium relative to that on USD.