In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, according to the same principles as for the Nobel Prizes that have been awarded since 1901. This volume is a collection of the Nobel lectures delivered by the Nobel laureates, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches, for the period 2016–2020.

All European countries have some form of compulsory insurance against the loss of income due to temporary disability. The insurance schemes vary widely between countries both in terms of measurable entities (such as the compensation level) as well as in unmeasurable traits concerning the actual implementation of the programs. In this paper we use European Labour Force Survey data to study how the measurable differences in the programs is associated with differences in absence rates. We also summarize the theoretical literature on insurance principles in this field. Based on the empirical literature we then discuss how different forms of incentives may affect the work absence rate.

We analyze how insurance arrangements, labor supply, moral hazard, and outright cheating are affected by social norms. One question is under what conditions norms may improve social welfare. Another is under what conditions people should be allowed to opt out of social insurance. We introduce an informal production sector to analyze the consequences of alternative assumptions about the information available to norm enforcers. This highlights one important aspect of norms, namely, that they may compensate for the insurer's limited information.

Nationalekonomin brukar delas upp i två huvuddelar: mikroekonomi och makroekonomi. Inom mikroekonomin studerar man ekonomins grundläggande byggstenar, nämligen de enskilda hushållens och företagens beslut. Inom makroekonomin har man ett mer övergripande perspektiv; där studerar man de stora aggregaten, som arbetslöshet, tillväxt, ränta och inflation.



Det är inom dessa områden som den politiska diskussionen är som hetast i dag. Varför är arbetslösheten så hög? Hur sköter Riksbanken sitt arbete egentligen? Varför svänger räntorna och växelkurserna så mycket? Hur ska man hantera finanskriser? Och varför är inkomstfördelningen så ojämn? Syftet med Tillämpad makroekonomi är att på ett enkelt och lättfattligt sätt presentera nationalekonomernas syn på dessa frågor.