Labor Market and Current Account Equilibria in Greenland

Greenland’s population and employment have historically been stable, but its growth performance is not impressive. Greenland enjoys rather stable fishing exports, and it receives two-thirds of its import capacity as a grant from Denmark. Non-fishing labor contributes to either private consumption or government consumption. The first is import-intensive and the second is labor-intensive. Greenland’s imports cannot exceed the sum of the grant and net fishing exports. A large public sector guarantees stable employment. A larger private-government consumption ratio is hypothesized as a way to increase welfare, and a lower real wage is the means by which this can be achieved.