Structural Reform in Open Economies

This insightful book focuses on the economic consequences of structural reform policies in the economies at the cutting edge of reform: Denmark, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway. The contributors examine policies aimed at improving the underlying path of growth, employment and saving-investment balances of the economy and apply state of the art methods to measure and model structural reforms. They examine the areas of competition policy, regulation of entry barriers, non-tariff trade barriers and employment protection rules as well as the quality of education and training, the efficiency of various public sector agencies and labour supply effects of care for children and the elderly. Special attention is paid to two 'success stories': New Zealand's 'Kiwi-model' and the Dutch 'Polder-model'. The book provides a welcome addition to the scarce evidence on both the costs and the benefits of structural reform and identifies the policy problems and the analytical issues at stake. This book will be indispensable to policymakers and academics with an interest in structural reform and macroeconomic policy.