How much flexibility should firms have to depart from collectively negotiated wages and working conditions? The experiences of Germany and Italy show both the benefits and the risks of decentralizing collective bargaining.
About one in fourteen Danish families has a child with a physical disability, such as a heart defect, epilepsy or cerebral palsy. Caring for that child takes time, money and emotional energy. What happens to the brothers and sisters who grow up alongside them?
How do local governments use additional funds, and how do they adjust to revenue cuts? These questions are central to the design of fiscal equalization schemes and of large public investment programs that channel funds to municipalities. They are difficult to answer, however, because transfers typically respond to local conditions.
Across most Western countries, mothers who give birth usually take some form of leave from work. But what happens within a firm when a worker goes on a planned parental leave?
When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, East Germany's workforce faced a transformation unlike anything seen in post-war Europe. This insight shows that East German workers experienced far greater occupational mobility than their West German counterparts born in the same years.
From semiconductors to artificial intelligence, concerns about economic espionage have become a central feature of geopolitical competition. But one fundamental question has remained surprisingly difficult to answer: does stealing technological knowledge actually improve economic performance?
