In this article, we offer a supply-side explanation of two striking patterns in European unemployment as compared with that of other member countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). (See figure 1 and table 1.) The first pattern is that of average unemployment rates. These were similar for European and non-European OECD countries during the 1960s and 1970s, b...

We examine the distribution of hours of work across 2-digit industrial sectors in OECD countries. We find large disparities when sectors are divided into three types: health and social work, a group that produces goods with home substitutes and all others. We attribute the disparities to the different tax and subsidy policies that countries follow, in a nested CES preference structure with home...

This paper uses newly available long-span data on real per capita incomes from 1900-2001 to test for stochastic convergence in a diverse group of 29 countries. To perform our tests, we utilize the two-break LM unit root test of Lee and Strazicich (2003) and endogenously determine two distinct structural breaks in level and trend for each country. Despite including both OECD and non-OECD countri...

We examine the distribution of hours of work across industrial sectors in OECD countries. We find large disparities when sectors are divided into three groups: one that produces goods without home substitutes and two others that have home substitutes — health and social work, and all others. We attribute the disparities to the countries’ tax and subsidy policies. High taxation substantially red...

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) initiated the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in 2008 with the aim of assessing basic skills of the adult population in an internationally comparable way. The skills assessed—literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technologyrich environments—are considered to be essential for successfu...

Accidents in the energy sector have been identified as one of the main contributors to man-made disasters. The present work focuses on the assessment of severe accident risks relating to fossil energy chains. Evaluations were based on the highly comprehensive Energyrelated Severe Accident Database (ENSAD), which was established at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). The historical experience repr...

Shadow Economies and Corruption All Over the World: What Do We Really Know? Estimations of the size and development of the shadow economy for 145 countries, including developing, transition and highly developed OECD economies over the period 1999 to 2003 are presented. The average size of the shadow economy (as a percent of “official” GDP) in 2002/03 in 96 developing countries is 38.7%, in 25 t...