Sources of persistence in employment adjustment - Denmark 1974-93

This paper aims at identifying and quantifying different sourcesof persistency in employment adjustment. Based on a dynamiclabour market model an explicit distinction is made betweenreal and nominal (prices and wage) propagation mechanisms. Thetheoretical analysis provides the basis for an empirical analysisof nominal wages, nominal prices, and employment for the manufacturingsector in Denmark from 1974.1 to 1993.4. We find that nominalrigidities prevail in the short run and that nominal propagationmechanisms play a larger role than real propagation mechanisms.The persistency mechanism identified here are substantial froma business cycle perspective, but not in relation to the spanof time over which unemployment has persisted at a high level.     

The presidential power of unilateral action

In this article we highlight a formal basis for presidentialpower that has gone largely unappreciated to this point, buthas become so pivotal to presidential leadership and so centralto an understanding of presidential power that it virtuallydefines what is distinctively modern about the modern presidency.This is the president's formal capacity to act unilaterallyand thus to make law on his own. Our central purpose is to setout a theory of this aspect of presidential power. We arguethat the president's powers of unilateral action are a forcein American politics precisely because they are not specifiedin the Constitution. They derive their strength and resiliencefrom the ambiguity of the contract. We also argue that presidentshave incentives to push this ambiguity relentlessly to expandtheir own powers - and that, for reasons rooted in the natureof their institutions, neither Congress nor the courts are likelyto stop them. We are currently in the midst of a research projectto collect comprehensive data for testing this theory - dataon what presidents have done, as well as on how Congress andthe courts have responded. Here we provide a brief history ofunilateral action, with special attention to the themes of ourtheoretical argument. We also make use of some early data toemerge from our project. For now it appears that the theoryis well supported by the available evidence. This is a workin progress, however, and more is clearly needed before definitiveconclusions can be justified.