Even small increases in a country's growth rate can result in large changes in living standards over just one generation. This key insight, which often seems to be forgotten by policymakers, is an important reason why the field of economic growth continues to be a large research field. This report provides an overview of the development of labor productivity in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) since the early 1980s. It also examines if data are consistent with predictions of traditional theories of growth. The analysis shows, for example, that the real wage per employee is positively related to the level of labor productivity - a finding suggesting that changes in relative standards of living have been driven by parallel changes in relative productivity.

The Nordic future of workHow will work and working life in the Nordic countries change in the future? This is the question to be addressed in the project The Future of Work: Opportunities and Challenges for the Nordic Models. This initial report describes the main drivers and trends expected to shape the future of work. It also reviews the main distinctions of the Nordic model and recent developments in Nordic working lives, pointing towards the kind of challenges the future of work may pose to the Nordic models. Too often, debates about the future narrowly focus on changes in technology. This report draws attention to the broader drivers and political-institutional frameworks influencing working life developments, aiming to spur debate about how the interaction of changes in demography, climate, globalization and digital technologies may influence Nordic working lives in the coming decades.

Globalisation and demographic trends underline the twin challenge of the Nordics with productivity stagnation and a decreasing work force. Increasing productivity and the work force will be an answer to both. A good work environment can do both: If less people have to take sick leave as result of bad work environments, this will contribute to increasing the work force. Also, for some time, a relationship between work environment and productivity has been hypothesised. Happy, healthy workers, in short, are more productive than not-so-happy and not-so-healthy workers are. This report is based on the most comprehensive empirical study of the cohension between working envi-ronment and productivity. It confirms the hope of many, i.e. that improvements in working environment and improved productivity are highly correlated. The results are robust across time and the investigated countries.

From the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) comes an exciting source of theoretical approaches, epidemiological findings, and real-life examples regarding the therapeutic and health-enhancing effects of music. Experts across fields including psychology, neurology, music therapy, medicine, and public health review research on the benefits of music in relieving physiological, psychological, and socioemotional dysfunction. Chapters link musical experiences (listening and performing, as well as involvement in movement, dance, and theatre) to a wide range of clinical and non-clinical objectives such as preventing isolation, regulating mood, reducing stress and its symptoms, and treating dementia. And the book’s section on innovative music-based interventions illustrates opportunities for incorporating musical activities into public health programs. Among the topics covered are: · Associations between the use of music, cultural participation and health-related outcomes in adult Scandinavian populations · Music practice and emotion handling · How music translates itself biologically in the body · Music as a forum for social-emotional health · Participation and partnership as core concepts in music and public health · Music therapy as health promotion for mothers and children at a public health clinic Music and Public Health will gain interested readers among researchers, teachers, students, and clinicians in the fields of music education and therapy, as well as researchers and students of public health who are interested in the influence of culture and the arts. The book also will be relevant to administrators in public health services.

Presents the proceedings of two workshops on productivity measurement and analysis, which brought together representatives of statistical offices, central banks and other officials involved with the analysis and measurement of productivity at aggregate and industry levels.

The publication Services and Goods Exports from the Nordics – Strongholds and profiles of exporting enterprises analyses the exports of services and goods from the Nordic countries and profiles the exporting enterprises. The report addresses issues such as: What are the strongholds of the Nordic countries, both in terms of the type of exported services and goods and in terms of geographical markets? New data profile for the first time the services trading enterprises in a comparative analysis across the Nordics. How have exporting enterprises performing compared to non-exporting enterprises since the crisis in terms of employment and value added creation? What is the importance of multinationals for the exports from the Nordic countries? The analysis identify the importance of true SMEs compared to SMEs belonging to larger groups and identify the born globals and analyse their survival rate and employment creation compared to other non-exporting newly born enterprises.