Towards an analysis of tax effects on labour market and allocation: A micro/macro approach

Summary Tax effects on labour market and allocation are analysed with a sectoral model which is based on the microeconomic theory of the behaviour of economic agents. The model contains a highly disaggregated household sector, an enterprise sector, equilibrium unemployment on the labour market and a detailed modelling of institutional aspects of the tax and social security system. The model is calibrated for 1985. Simulation results show that temporary increases of world trade and higher value-added tax rates do not affect the equilibrium unemployment rate in the long run. A higher replacement rate of unemployment benefits increases unemployment and a tax reform containing lower marginal and average tax rates reduces unemployment.The authors thank F.J.H. Don, C.J.J. Eijgenraam, F.H. Huizinga and R.M. van Opstal for assistance on the household model, the cumulated production structure approach, the wage model and the model of firm behaviour respectively, and other colleagues of the Central Planning Bureau for useful comments.See Shoven and Whalley (1984) and Borges (1986) for reviews, and Keller (1980) for an application to The Netherlands.See, for instance, Abel (1980), Summers (1981), Bruno and Sachs (1985), Van de Klundert and Peters (1986).Ginsburgh and Mercenier (1988) review AGE modelling and the disequilibrium approach.     

The rise and decline of European parliaments, 1188–17891

This article quantifies the activities of medieval and early modern parliaments. It traces the long‐term evolution of this European institution, and offers a first pass at analysing its impact on long‐term economic development. Starting in Spain in the twelfth century, parliaments gradually spread over the Latin west between 1200 and 1500. In the early modern period, parliaments declined in influence in southern and central Europe and further gained in importance in the Netherlands and Britain, resulting in an institutional ‘Little Divergence’ between 1500 and 1800. We discuss the background of this phenomenon in detail. Moreover, by analysing the effects of parliamentary activity on city growth we find that these differences in institutional development help to explain the economic divergence between north‐western and southern and central Europe.