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...

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...

In 2004, U.S. health care spending per capita was 2.5 times greater than health spending in the median Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country and much higher than health spending in any other OECD country. The United States had fewer physicians, nurses, hospital beds, doctor visits, and hospital days per capita than the median OECD country. Health care prices and h...

The text of this paper is part of the section on monitoring and evaluation of the OECD report " E-government Imperative " (2003). It gives an overview of the practices and discusses specific tools that OECD countries have developed to monitor and evaluate e-government (assessment of costs, benefits, demand and service quality) at the time the report was written. While the paper in large part re...