Search

The European Union took its first strategic step on the topic of climate adaptation in 2009 with publication of a White Paper on Adaptation. Since its publication, many researchers and analysts have criticized the White Paper for its lack of concrete and enforceable actions. In this paper, we analyse the White Paper as an instrument of soft law. First, we provide background on the theory of soft law, its terms of applicability, and the standards by which to judge its success. Second, we analyse the content and context of the White Paper according to soft law principles. We find that the conditions under which the White Paper was adopted were exactly those suited to a soft law approach and highly determined by the European multi-level governance context. As such, the White Paper has managed to achieve several of the common objectives of soft law in particular in setting up processes allowing information-sharing and subsidiarity. However it has failed to achieve several others especially in fostering the commitment of the states, and in moving the European Union in the direction of binding regulation. Further strategy development will be required to fix these deficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the special issue on Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society in Europe. There are many reasons for Europe to want to make the transition to a more Entrepreneurial Society. And for decades now, policy makers are trying to bring that transition about with variations on the Beducate, deregulate and finance^ approach to entrepreneurship. We argue that more fundamental reforms are required to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem and bring about this transition. We then discuss the 12 contributions that pertain to five different facets of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The first two papers address the most fundamental institutional foundations of the ecosystem. The next three papers discuss the (lack of) access to knowledge and incentives to start innovative entrepreneurial ventures. That is followed by three papers that focus on the institutions that (fail to) channel financial resources to such ventures and two papers that analyze the relevance of labor market institutions. The special issue concludes with two papers investigating how the interplay of institutions and productive entrepreneurship results in economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on European Union research commissioner Philippe Busquin's plan to publish a white paper early 2000 outlining his plans for the creation of a European Research Area.

The crises of 2002 and 2008 have raised the issue of banking sector's ranking system efficiency. The credit rating agencies (CRAs) are crucial for the modern financial market. The impact that the ratings have is indisputable. This paper is seeking to find the factors that affect the ratings and to create a prediction mechanism. The originality of the paper is based on the fact that it utilizes a number of different variables (ownership status, corporate governance, etc.), and the hypothesis is innovative because it addresses the issue of divergence-convergence of the European banking sector and its respective ratings. In order to do that, all ranking evaluations have been matched with a numerical value (i.e., AAA has value 24, A- has value 18, and B- has value 9). A good grade is considered to be above A- (value 18) and a bad grade below that number. Seven groups of indicators are examined: performance, size, ownership, corporate governance, capital adequacy or capital structure, sovereign-country ranking, and loan growth. Three econometric methods (probit, logit, and OLS) have been used to create a system that predicts the rating grade. The independent variable is binary (good grade = 1/bad grade = 0). Inactive banks have been excluded from the sample. This paper provides a model for predicting the factors that affect the grade of the bank rating. Many of the factors, which other studies have pointed out, are found to be statistically important in our models, too. This paper contributes to the literature by establishing a unique framework for the European banks and identifying the factors that affect the rating grade by giving an answer to the issue of an isomorphic banking sector in Europe. It shows that there are significant differences among the various geographical regions [variables cgsys, ns, European countries with major economic problems or those under stress (Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Greece)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) is an entity in re-evolution in relation to the development of its human rights strategy. This paper will examine the EU's human rights advocacy in external relations in the context of normative power Europe (NPE), particularly in relation to the notion of the EU becoming a 'norm entrepreneur' with its revised human rights 'toolbox'. The promotion and protection of human rights is cited as being at the core of European values, together with democracy and the rule of law, having both an internal and external focus in rights promotion and protection. This paper endeavours to present an analysis of the EU as norm entrepreneur in the context of human rights advocate. In so doing, it will examine the question of EU visibility in terms of human rights promotion. In its external action, the EU has a number of 'tools' in its human rights toolbox. By applying a rights inclusion analysis to the tool of digital diplomacy in an Asian context, the question of EU as norm entrepreneur is seen to be driven by strategic interests and partnerships. This paper argues that the EU is an 'inadvertent' norm entrepreneur through its programmatic pursuit of being an entrepreneur for social good in its external action rather than norm diffusion as experienced in a European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Banking Union is at an important juncture post the period of institution building, with policy pronouncements being published by the ECB about how it will go about undertaking its task of supervision within the eurozone. These attempt to explain how it will address the complex task of supervising banks within a multilayered framework of regional and domestic rule-making and oversight. This paper assesses the ECB's approach to supervision and enforcement and the extent to which its approach to supervision is clear enough to overcome the challenges of a multilayered structure and whether or not the constituent parts understand the culture of regulation and supervision it espouses to ensure the multilayered model combines together in a coherent manner. This paper suggests that this is without a doubt a challenge due partly to the limited jurisdiction of the ECB as a prudential regulator and supervisor. The paper proposes a single enforcement approach and a single enforcement handbook to complement the regulatory and supervisory processes under the European Single Rulebook and Single Supervisory Handbook. It is argued that this would assist the process of interpreting and understanding how supervision and enforcement will work and reduce the expectations gap between the ECB and the regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including actions of European Commission for damages under national law for infringements of competition law, public enforcement of European Union (EU) merger control and competition policy of EU.

Research on water scarcity and water management in Europe has accelerated significantly in the past two decades, mainly as a result of growing water demand for agricultural, industrial, and municipal uses. Most research studies in the field evaluate water use and management by means of static indicators that depict a one-time value for a given time period (e.g., one year). This paper suggests a dynamic indicator measuring product (here: water) generational dematerialization. The indicator presents a comprehensive approach for evaluating water resources and water management strategies, as it represents a function of both resource use changes and population changes occurring simultaneously and over time. To accentuate the benefits of this dynamic indicator over static indicators as well as its practical applicability for decision-making support, the paper evaluates water management in Europe based on the total water use between 2001 and 2013. The results show that water management estimated cumulatively for the analyzed European countries has been effective for the last 13 years, though significant regional variations have been found. The research and the dynamic water generational dematerialization indicator can be helpful with addressing regional and national water deficit problems and designing sustainable water management strategies in the mid- and long-run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysis the Euro area's growth over the last 15-20 years and provides a medium term outlook. We find that in a no policy change scenario, growth will be subdued, essentially reflecting the influence of weak pre-crisis trends, most notably for TFP (especially since the mid-1990's). This trend will be exacerbated over the coming decade by the ongoing negative fallout from the financial crisis and by the emerging drag on growth emanating from ageing populations. Unlike in standard recessions, the GDP losses relative to a pre-crisis projection appear to be permanent. The picture presented could potentially improve with the implementation of an ambitious programme of structural reforms focussed on boosting employment and productivity. Since the usefulness of such policies is controversial in the current juncture with constrained monetary policy, the paper also looks at the impact of such reforms in a realistically calibrated model and concludes that fears of large permanent deflationary effects from structural reforms are exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the special issue “Effects of the euro changeover on consumer behaviour” by briefly reviewing the contents of the included papers. The introduction follows the organization of the papers in three sections each focusing on a common set of issues. In the first section, research revealing the perceived and actual problems consumers face after the euro changeover is described. Research illuminating learning and adaptation to the euro changeover is the focus of the second section. A special problem is the misperception of inflation after the euro changeover. Research on this problem is addressed in the third section. In a final section, the main findings and their policy implications are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade flows are highly concentrated in the top units of analysis. In this paper, we study the size distribution of exports at the product level, using Comext data for the 28 EU countries over the period 2002-2014. We fit power law relationships running log rank-log size regressions. The estimated Pareto exponent may be interpreted as a single measure of the inequality between the top products; it thus constitutes an alternative to other measures of export diversification. The Pareto exponent estimates are quite stable for most EU countries between 2002 and 2014. However, some countries stand out for their increase or decrease in the Pareto exponent. Some preliminary evidence suggesting negative correlation between volatility in EU country exports and export diversification at the product level is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems requires better coordination between policies span-ning freshwater, coastal and marine environments. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been promoted as a holistic and integrative approach for the safekeeping and protection of aquatic biodiversity. The paper assesses the degree to which key European environmental policies for the aquatic environment, namely the Birds and Habitats Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, individually support EBM and can work synergistically to implement EBM. This assessment is based on a review of legal texts, EU guidance and implementation documents. The paper concludes that EBM can be made operational by implementing these key environmental directives. Opportunities for improving the integration of EU environmental policies are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on migrants and migration in the context of the Czech Republic, an ethnically and nationally homogeneous country without significant migration experience. Despite this fact, the issue of migration became very prominent in 2015 and has been an integral part of Czech political and public discourse since then. Although the topic has attracted scholarly interest, but the reflection on migrant images held by citizens has been omitted. To fill this gap, first, we conducted a quantitative computer-assisted content analysis of the main Czech media (2015–2018) to investigate how important the issue of migration was and in what context migrants and migration were discussed in the media. We then conducted a series of focus groups with Czech citizens to answer not only how they perceived migrants and migration in general, but also how they perceived the (quality of) media coverage of this issue. The findings offer insight into patterns of media consumption: Our respondents were well aware that media representation of the topic is exaggerated and does not include all possible points of view. The prevailing perception was that the mostly negative media representation was fixated on the image of a migrant coming from the Middle East, most likely to be a terrorist who is not going to adapt to a "normal" life in the Czech Republic. Indeed, the very term migrant is mainly associated with someone who, according to the mental projections of the respondents, is "different" at first sight, fails to fit in and integrate into the majority society, does not look for work thus becoming dependent on the social system of the host country. In other words, for Czechs, people who come to settle and work are excluded from the socially constructed category of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its early efforts to create a migration regime, the EU passed the 2003 Directive on the Right to Family Reunification. This directive has long been considered controversial, in part because of the directive's treatment of migrant women. In 2011, the EU published a Green Paper on the right to family reunification as a way to begin to assess interest in revisiting this directive. While one could consider this a positive step due to the initial uproar over the 2003 directive, it is clear that the EU's interest in reopening the debate on family reunification is problematic for many reasons. This paper explains the consultation process in the EU to expose the concerns of various constituencies and uncovers the ways in which family reunification and integration policy in the EU are still conceived of as "gender neutral" policy areas. While reopening the 2003 family reunification Directive could have been a positive move for migrant women, this paper underscores the ways in which the EU, and even parts of the nongovernmental community, continue to fall short in crafting gender sensitive policies that would benefit migrant women, their families, and the EU a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses reports within the issue on topics including economic development in the Netherlands, pension system design in the European Union, and private saving imbalances.

The present paper examines the impact of the current fiscal crisis in the euro area on the Greek banking system and the institutional, regulatory and supervisory measures adopted to preserve its stability. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the differentiated impact of the recent (2007-2009) international financial crisis and the current fiscal crisis in the euro area on the Greek banking system, and the measures adopted to safeguard its stability from 2008 (amidst the recent international financial crisis) until the establishment of the European Banking Union in 2014 (amidst the current fiscal crisis in the euro area). The second part overviews the main elements of the current institutional, regulatory and supervisory framework governing banking stability in Greece in the era of the European Banking Union and its implementation during the last 2 years after the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the Single Resolution Mechanism and the Single Resolution Fund. The paper concludes with some remarks on the current challenges of the Greek banking system, the functioning of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the need for a 'regulatory pause'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofuels have transitioned from a technology expected to deliver numerous benefits to a highly contested socio-technical solution. Initial hopes about their potential to mitigate climate change and to deliver energy security benefits and rural development, particularly in the Global South, have unravelled in the face of numerous controversies. In recognition of the negative externalities associated with biofuels, the European Union developed sustainability criteria which are enforced by certification schemes. This paper draws on the literature on stewardship to analyse the outcomes of these schemes in two countries: the UK and Guatemala. It explores two key issues: first, how has European Union biofuels policy shaped biofuel industries in the UK and Guatemala? And second, what are the implications for sustainable land stewardship? By drawing attention to the outcomes of European demand for biofuels, we raise questions about the ability of European policy to drive sustainable land practices in these two cases. The paper concludes that, rather than promoting stewardship, the current governance framework effectively rubberstamps existing agricultural systems and serves to further embed existing inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate how new rules and practices in multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations related to the services industries can be adopted and implemented at the business level, using the recently concluded free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between the EU and Singapore as an illustrative case. The purpose is to put the services sector into the larger framework of business service interaction between the EU and the outside world by identifying crucial sub-sectors within the services industries and their relations to physical, 'visible' production and trade. Furthermore, to assess the prospects of 'multilateralising' regional trade agreements within the service sector, through the ambitions by both parties to make bilateral and interregional FTAs and EPAs more compatible and mutually comparable with the multilateral GATS' rules. The EU-Singapore FTA is an agreement that became a 'second-best' solution of the stalled interregional EU-ASEAN negotiation, taking place 2006-2009. It can nevertheless be seen as a 'WTO-plus' endeavour, since it aims at reaching beyond what is under negotiation in the likewise stalled Doha Development Agenda within the WTO framework, particularly in the fields of business services, public procurement, intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures, and, generally, competition rules. Since both parties already apply low or zero tariffs in most sectors of manufacturing, the main issues in the negotiations were related to services in general and knowledge-intensive business services in particular, with an emphasis on technical barriers to trade. To what extent will there be a true mutual opening up of the service markets between the two parties as a result of the agreement, and what technical and mental barriers remain? This FTA, if successfully implemented, can also pave the way for a revitalisation of the 'paused' EU-ASEAN talks, in which issues related to services were most controversial. Furthermore, it should also be seen in the global context of parallel and overlapping existing agreements or proposed talks, e.g. FTAAP, RCEP, TTIP and TPP, as well as the plurilateral TiSA initiative. In this respect, it can also be considered a test of the EU 'Global Europe' initiative, launched in 2006, and its follow-up communications from the Commission-the latest so far by the 'Trade-for-All' document in October 2015. The paper takes a combined policy- and firm-level approach, by investigating the already reached as well as the potential future impacts by the actors at both sides of the agreement through interviews with diplomatic officials representing EU, ASEAN and separate member-states within both parties, as well as with EU-originated service firms operating in Singapore. A major conclusion is that the business sector sees little direct impact of the future FTA, and that most companies stick to an 'ad-hoc' approach to meet and to overcome trade barriers rather than building a comprehensive strategy regarding how to behave after that the agreement has come into force. On the other hand, most companies are positive to the agreement as such but would welcome resumed EU-ASEAN talks, since the most troublesome remaining barriers are related to doing business with neighbouring countries in the region, using Singapore as the hub for transfer of knowledge-based services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the introduction of the euro in the EU-12 countries influenced the short-term volatility of output, measured by the volatility of industrial production growth. It assesses whether more favorable criteria of optimum currency areas keep the volatility of industrial production growth constant. Finally, it investigates the impact of the global financial crisis on the volatility of industrial production growth and on the characteristics of the optimum currency areas of the EU-12 countries. This paper uses the Chow breakpoint test and the Quandt-Andrews test to check for structural breaks in the volatility obtained from ARMA (p,q) and AR(p)-EGARCH(1,1) models. The results suggest that after the introduction of the euro, the volatility of industrial production growth has not significantly changed in Austria, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain. However, the volatility of industrial production growth did increase in Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal after the adoption of the common currency. In Germany and Greece the volatility of industrial production increased after 2002 and 1997 respectively. This observation cannot be connected directly to the introduction of the euro. After the beginning of the financial crisis, the volatility of industrial production growth increased in all EU-12 countries except France and Greece. Criteria for optimum currency areas fail to explain why the volatility of some EU-12 countries remained unchanged after the introduction of the euro and after the start of the financial crisis. Those countries, where the volatility of industrial production has not changed significantly after the introduction of the euro, had a long history of fixed or pegged exchange rate regimes. This group of countries recovered faster after the financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have established the predictive power of the yield curve in terms of real economic activity. In this paper we use data for a variety of E.U. countries: both EMU (Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) and non-EMU members (Norway, Sweden and the U.K.). The data used range from 1991:Q1 to 2009:Q3. For each country, we extract the long run trend and the cyclical component of real economic activity, while the corresponding ECB euro area government benchmark bond interest rates of long and short term maturities are used for the calculation of the yield spreads. We also augment the models tested with non monetary policy variables: the respective unemployment rates and stock indices. The methodology employed in the effort to forecast real output, is a probit model of the inverse cumulative distribution function of the standard distribution, using several formal forecasting and goodness of fit evaluation criteria. The results show that the yield curve augmented with the non-monetary variables has significant forecasting power in terms of real economic activity but the results differ qualitatively between the individual economies examined raising non-trivial policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost of starting a business in Italy is relatively high as compared with other EU member states. One reason is the cost of notarization, which is mandatory under the Italian law. In order to reduce this cost, in 2012 a new type of limited liability company was created—the simplified limited liability company—for which notarization should be provided free-of-charge. In this paper we explore the reasons behind the requirement of notarization and review the evidence from a few cases where notarization was made optional. Subsequently, we describe the results of an ad hoc experiment in order to evaluate the design of the policy. We performed a randomized control trial involving almost 350 notaries in Rome, Italy. We find that the majority of the notaries in our sample do not fulfill the obligation by asking a greater-than-zero fee, therefore suggesting the policy is not fully effective. We conclude that obliging notaries to perform specific tasks below-costs (or even free-of-charge) may not be an effective policy, leading to suboptimal results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 20 years in Europe have seen large swings in real and financial markets, and sudden stops of capital flows have exposed the fault lines of the European financial architecture. While the pre-crisis financial architecture centered around mechanisms to contain borrowing by the public-sector, this paper argues that incentives for the private sector to engage in excessive borrowing had not been taken into account adequately. Macroprudential policy is a core element of the post-crisis reform agenda, and it plays a particularly important role in the European monetary union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European countries need to expand employment among older individuals. Many papers have examined this issue from different angles. However, very few seem to have considered its gender dimension properly, despite evidence that lifting the overall senior employment rate requires significantly raising that of women older than 50. The key issue examined by this paper is whether employers are willing to employ more older workers, in particular older women. The answer depends to a large extent on the ratio of older individuals' productivity to their cost to employers. To address this question we tap into a unique firm-level panel of Belgian data to produce robust evidence on the causal effect of age/gender on productivity and labour costs. We take advantage of the panel structure to identify age/gender-related differences from within-firm variation. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we address the problem of endogeneity of the age/gender mix, using a structural production function estimator (Olley and Pakes in Econometrica 64(6):1263-1297, ; Levinsohn and Petrin in Rev Econ Stud 70(2):317-341, ) alongside IV-GMM methods where lagged value of labour inputs are used as instruments. Our results indicate a small negative impact of larger shares of older men on the productivity-labour cost ratio. An increment of 10%-points of in their share causes a 0.17-0.69%-point contraction. However, the main result is that the equivalent handicap with older women is larger, ranging from 1.3 to 2.0%-points. This is not good news for older women's employability. And the vast services industry does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate older women's disadvantage, on the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of human capital on the process of innovation and technology catch-up in European Union countries. Based on the framework proposed by Benhabib and Spiegel (in: Aghion and Durlauf (eds) Handbook of economic growth, 1A, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2005), a panel data model is estimated from 1950 to 2011 using the improved total factor productivity and human capital variables included in PWT 8.0. Following Vandenbussche et al. (J Econ Growth 11(2):97-127, 2006) we also analyse the differential impact of skilled and unskilled human capital on growth. The empirical analysis applies instrumental variables panel data methods which resolve the endogeneity bias. Our results show robust evidence of the significant direct and indirect effects of human capital on the process of total factor productivity (TFP henceforth) growth in euro area countries. When we analyse the impact of different kinds of human capital on different ways of increasing TFP we conclude that, regardless of academic level, the quantity of unskilled human capital boosts imitation in EU countries while, by contrast, highly qualified human capital is essential for growth through innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has introduced a price for carbon, thus generating an additional cost for companies that are regulated by the scheme. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the effect of the EU ETS on firm-level economic performance. There is a growing body of empirical literature that investigates the effects of the EU ETS on firm economic performance, with mixed results. Differently from the previous literature, we test the effect of the EU ETS on a larger set of indicators of economic performance: employment, average wages, turnover, value added, markup, investment, labour productivity, total factor productivity and ROI. Our results, based on a large panel of European firms, provide a broad picture of the economic impact of the EU ETS in its first and second phases of implementation. Contrarily to the expectations, the EU ETS did not affect economic performance negatively. Results suggest that firms have reacted to the EU ETS by passing-through costs to their customers on the one hand and improving labour productivity on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate fiscal sustainability of five regional groups in the EU using the dataset of 26 countries for the period 1950-2014. To this end, we estimate their policy rules in which primary surpluses respond to public debt and examine whether estimated policy rules satisfy the conditions for fiscal solvency. In the baseline solvency tests with time-invariant marginal responses of primary surpluses, we find that estimated policy rules satisfy the solvency condition that the marginal response be positive for the Benelux, northern, and eastern groups but fail to do so for the western and southern groups. When estimating their policy rules separately for eurozone and non-eurozone countries, we find that long-term fiscal sustainability of eurozone countries is more questionable in the sense that non-eurozone countries in all regional groups have significantly positive marginal responses, whereas eurozone countries in most regional groups do not. Finally, more general solvency tests that allow time-varying marginal responses reveal that only the Southern group fails to satisfy the generalized solvency conditions that marginal responses be always nonnegative and positive infinitely often. These findings seem to be consistent with the fact that countries in the Southern group experienced severe fiscal crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the international transmission of monetary policy in the case where all export prices are set in US dollars. 'Dollar pricing' implies that the international effects of US monetary shocks are different from those of European shocks because of an asymmetric exchange rate pass-through to import prices. A dollar pricing model can explain the observed asymmetry in the transmission of monetary policy: US monetary policy affects US output more than European monetary policy affects European output. I also show that the current account is an important channel through which monetary policy affects welfare. The paper concludes that under dollar pricing a monetary expansion is a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the pass-through of money market rates to short-term and long-term business lending rates in the four largest euro area countries. The main findings of the paper are (1) that since the start of EMU loan rates appear to have become more responsive to money market rate changes in France, Italy and Spain, but not in Germany, and (2) that German loan rates are significantly more sluggish than loan rates in the other three large euro area countries. I also test for non-linear pass-through based on an asymmetric error-correction model but do not find much evidence of non-linearity in euro area interest rate pass-through. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The inherent complexity of the Europe 2020 Strategy, focused on areas where the European Commission has not full jurisdictional competence, increases the relevance of a timely and precise monitoring system and of effective and efficient institutional settings. This paper performs a quantitative evaluation of countries' performances, using the Europe 2020 Index (Pasimeni in Soc Indic Res 110(2): 613-635, . doi:). We observe differences among countries and across time, and investigate their determinants by means of a model including potential explanatory variables, such as level of wealth, growth, sustainability of public finances and institutions. We refer to institutions in the sense of North (J Econ Perspect 5(1):97-112, ), and apply the distinction between formal and informal ones. The analysis confirms the importance of formal and informal institutions, both in absolute and in relative terms, compared with the other factors considered. Institutional variables, such as good governance and social capital, are the most significant ones and have the strongest estimated effects on countries' performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether two popular poverty indicators, namely income poverty and material deprivation, reach similar conclusions about the poverty reduction effects of income transfers. Such evaluations generally use income poverty. It is well-known, however, that poverty indicators regularly disagree about a person's poverty status. What is less known is whether such disagreement also confounds estimates of a program's poverty reduction effects. This paper compares the targeting performance of social assistance, housing and family transfers in countries with different welfare states namely Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It finds that a transfer's targeting performance does not differ much when defining the transfer's target group either as the poorest income quintile or the poorest material deprivation quintile. Yet, when combining the information from both indicators, transfers appear much more effective in reaching those groups that both poverty indicators identify as part of the target group. Transfers also appear much more efficient in excluding non-target populations. For the groups on which the poverty indicators disagree, more analysis is needed. Triangulation between poverty indicators thus improves the validity of program evaluations as it enables a better separation between (potential) poverty measurement issues and the measurement of a program's (potential) effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of Regional Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Unilateral preferences aim at increasing exports from developing countries via reductions on applied tariffs and the incentives created by the preference margin. After decades of existence, the evidence as to the extent to which preferential schemes have been genuinely effective in increasing exports is mixed. This paper evaluates the impact of the European Union's (EU) unilateral preferential regimes on the exports of developing countries using a bilateral gravity model at the product level. We use a unique dataset that allows us to determine the actual tariff rate paid by each export flow at the product level (combined nomenclature CN-10 digits) to the EU and the preferential regime of entry. This allows us to accurately specify the impact of each trade regime and to properly address the issue of utilisation and non-utilisation of trade preferences. The most important findings of the paper are that unilateral preferences have been effective in increasing exports to the EU both as a result of the direct effect of lower tariffs and positive preference margin, and because of secondary effects associated with the preference regimes; although the outcome of these secondary effects depends on the margin of trade considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses an otherwise standard macro-financial VAR model for the euro area that includes - apart from conventional measures of output, inflation and monetary policy - a composite indicator of systemic financial stress, namely the CISS index, and total assets of the ECB balance sheet capturing the stance of unconventional monetary policy. I find that the CISS contributes significantly to the dynamics of the macroeconomy and exerts a strong influence on monetary policy when looking at both policy rates and the ECB balance sheet. The significance of the CISS appears robust to the inclusion of a broad set of real and financial control variables. Based on tests of direct versus indirect (Granger-)causality patterns proposed in Hsiao (), I also find that unlike unconventional policy as measured by ECB balance sheet growth, the policy rate does not seem to react directly to variations in financial stress but rather indirectly through the impact of financial stress on macroeconomic conditions. These different patterns of reaction are broadly consistent with the ECB's 'separation principle'. The estimated effects of the ECB's standard and non-standard policy measures on inflation and economic growth are moderate, although an easier stance in both policy tools helps calm down financial stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, the three Baltic states adopted de jure (Estonia 1992, Lithuania 1994) or de facto (Latvia) currency boards. After operating under boards for two decades, Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014) and Lithuania (2015) exited to the Eurozone. The paper takes a qualitative look at their experience through the lens of the currency board literature. Viewed over the entire period of operation, the boards delivered on the inflation stabilization objective with little evidence of a growth or trade penalty. The high average performance was however accompanied by high volatility on both the nominal and the real side. While the boards avoided both currency and sovereign debt crises, they contributed to vulnerabilities, notably the 2004-2010 boom-bust cycle. The Baltic experience re-enforces policy lessons from earlier crisis under fixed exchange rates: vigilance and timely response to incipient vulnerabilities associated with short-term capital-inflows and over-heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the stabilization policies of the ten central and eastern European countries that have negotiated a Europe Agreement with the European Union and had officially applied for European Union membership by the end of 1997. This paper is a cross-country study of time series. Using a diagrammatic approach, the empirical findings are depicted in two-dimensional inflation-and-growth diagrams. The study shows that some common features of the macroeconomic data can be observed for most of the countries of the sample. From discussing potential determinants of the empirical findings, the analysis suggests that early liberalization attempts have had a strong positive impact on the inflation-growth pattern. While the influence of central bank legislation seems to be negligible, the choice of the exchange rate regime seems to play a crucial role. Regarding fiscal policy, the influence seems to be less obvious. This study concludes that the precondition for successful transformation and stabilization of the economy is a comprehensive approach that consists of early liberalization and tight macroeconomic policy. (JEL E63, P52) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the specific influence that the European banking union will have on (future) bank-client relationships. It shows that the intended regulatory influence on market conditions in principle serves as a powerful governance tool to achieve financial stability objectives. From this vantage, it analyses macro-prudential instruments with a particular view to mortgage lending markets; the latter have been critical in the emergence of many modern financial crises. In gauging the impact of the new European supervisory framework, the paper finds that the ECB will lack influence on key macro-prudential tools to push through more rigid supervisory policies vis-à-vis forbearing national authorities. Furthermore, this paper points out that the current design of the European bail-in tool supplies resolution authorities with undue discretion. This feature, which also afflicts the SRM, imperils the key policy objective to re-instill market discipline in banks' debt financing operations. This goal is also called into question because the nested regulatory technique that aims at preventing bail-outs unintendedly provides additional manoeuvring space to political decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe's pension systems face serious challenges due to increasing life expectancy and decreasing fertility. One cause of the latter is the pension system itself: as parents are no longer dependent of their children in their older days, they are not inclined to have so many children. This paper presents the effects of the pension system's introduction in an overlapping generations framework (calibrated on the basis of the Hungarian data) with heterogeneous agents, reasoning fertility's general decrease. The paper also analyzes a possible solution, a new pension scheme, where the pension depends not only on the previous contribution which punishes child bearing but also on the number of children that a pensioner has. As a result we receive that such a pension system could increase fertility, although it decreases output and consumption per capita and the welfare of the society but increases the total output and consumption due to the higher fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper documents the failure of the EU's current merger control architecture to address the misallocation problem and proposes changes to the architecture which would virtually eliminate this major concern. This will streamline the working of the architecture by removing the need for correctives to either prevent misallocation or reassign cases that have been misallocated. Moreover, and just as importantly, the resolution of this problem will improve the application of the principle of subsidiarity in merger cases and bring to an end the multiple notification issue, thereby strengthening the operation of the one-stop shop approach. The changes to the architecture and how they interact to virtually end the misallocation problem and thereby bring about the aforementioned benefits are revealed. More specifically, it demonstrates how the use of the three or more Member state notification rule and the distinct market test, the retention of the existing two Community Dimension tests and the two-thirds rule, as well as the shared competence of the Competition Directorate and Member state regulators to apply EU merger law, albeit intentionally in different situations, reinforce each other to resolve the stated problem. Moreover, this limited sharing of the right to apply EU merger law-currently the EU Commission has the exclusive right-allied with other forms of envisaged cooperation between the regulators is not just simply a reinterpretation of the Commission's most appropriate authority goal but also the possible beginnings of a more cooperative architecture, relative to the current architecture of separate jurisdictional zones, aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of merger control within the Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the distribution of direct payments (DPs) between farmers within the EU Member States (MS). The paper tries to identify some of the factors that can explain the differences between MS in terms of recent distribution and the evolution over time of the distribution of DPs, comparing results of different regression models. The analysis has confirmed that the concentration of direct payments is very heterogeneous across EU Member States and that it reaches very high values in some of them. This is even truer when, as in this paper, non-beneficiary farms are accounted for in the analysis of the DP distribution. The results support the idea that a large part of the concentration of the DP support is generated by the way land is distributed among farms. The results do not support the hypothesis that the models of implementation of the Single Payment Scheme can explain the observed differences among Member States in terms of DP concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent EU legislation has mandated the extension of comprehensive coverage of consumer dispute resolution (CDR) throughout the EU. The extension of CDR has given rise to a range of questions about the theoretical and practical implications of these changes. The field of CDR is underexplored in academic literature and only a few studies provide an overview of this rapidly developing area. There is a need to base CDR schemes on empirical evidence to inform practice and to provide justice. Tyler's procedural justice model of public compliance with the law might be beneficial in this inquiry. This exploratory study tests whether Tyler's well-established normative model of social regulation holds true in the CDR context by applying it to the ombudsman. In doing so, this paper seeks to contribute to a richer understanding of how to assess consumer acceptance of an ombudsman model of CDR. The study finds that Tyler's model cannot be fully translated to the UK ombudsman case study. The current dearth of comparative empirical evidence on the effectiveness of CDR in Europe fuels the need for further inquiry and re-evaluation of its theoretical foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides, for the first time, a detailed picture of the composition of public debt by type of holder (foreign vs. domestic) and type of holding institution for a set of 7 Euro Area countries between 1991Q1 and 2015Q4. In addition, it empirically inspects the determinants of nonresident public debt ownership, accounting for both domestic and external factors and paying special attention to the global financial crisis period. Using a previously unexplored dataset and by means of panel and country-specific time series regressions, we find that improved fiscal positions, systemic stress and financial volatility, a strong business cycle position, all increase share of public debt held by non-residents. Also, a higher share of monetary and financial institutions cross-border holdings of sovereign debt issued by the other Euro Area countries was correlated with higher share of public debt held by non-residents. Finally, results are robust to outliers inspection and other sensitivity checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand the convergence process prior and since the European financial and debt crisis, we scrutinize the role of capital flows for competitiveness in Greece and a set of six other euro area member countries (Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic). For this purpose the paper extends the seminal Balassa-Samuelson model by international capital markets with a particular focus on their impact on national wage policies. Capital flows are assumed to be able to invert the traditional direction of transmission of real wage increases from the tradable sector to the non-tradable sector and to make real wages increase beyond productivity increases. The augmented Balassa-Samuelson model is extended to trace cyclical deviations of real exchange rates from the productivity-driven equilibrium path. Panel estimations for the period from 1995 to 2013 reveal correlations in line with the Balassa-Samuelson effect, if Greece is excluded from the panel. For Greece, this in turn implies indication in favour of a credit-driven real wage increases beyond productivity increases what we call a “pseudo” Balassa-Samuelson effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in 2007–2008, an economic crisis with no comparable precedent after WWII has affected most of the World, and Europe in particular. Yet, despite the pervasiveness of the crisis, its impact was highly differentiated across countries. The macroeconomic country-level effects are very important, but also within countries the impact on the various regions has been far from uniform, with some regions, often the most urban, able to resist the crisis better than others. Among the many factors which can have influenced the differential impact of the crisis in Europe, this paper looks at the regional endowment of structural territorial assets, those which have been labelled as “territorial capital”. Territorial capital comprehends all those assets, being material or immaterial, public or private, which represent the development potential of places. Territorial capital enhances regional growth in ordinary times, and, being structural, can be expected to also act as a factor of resilience in times of crisis. To investigate this hypothesis, a database of territorial capital indicators for all regions of the European Union at NUTS3 level is exploited, and a classification of regions based on the endowment of territorial capital is built. It appears that regions belonging to different groups, i.e. being differently endowed with territorial capital, have had different degrees of resilience, with some being able to maintain their income levels better than their country and others losing ground. The structure of regions is hence an important determinant of how they can afford periods of distress, and in particular, more resilient have been those regions endowed with less mobile territorial capital assets and with those territorial capital assets of mixed levels of materiality and rivalry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The concept of “resource criticality” has recently emerged as a policy priority and research subject, usually referred to the risk of supply disruption for mineral resources, due to economic and geopolitical reasons. Different methodologies for assessing critical raw materials (CRM) have been developed in governmental and research contexts, and the possibility of including the resource security aspect in life cycle assessment (LCA) has been claimed by different authors. The present paper aims at integrating CRM considerations in LCA in order to address socio-economic and strategic aspects related to resource use.Methods: In this paper, we first explore how resource criticality could be interpreted, taking into account a wider perspective and a multidimensional concept. This includes the consideration of environmental and depletion aspects, in addition to the dominant interpretation, based on economic and geopolitical considerations. We then focus on the economic dimension of the resource criticality and propose the integration of this aspect in LCA through the use of characterization factors (CFs) based on the supply risk factors for Europe. Four different methodological options for resource security CFs are tested in the impact assessment of 50 processes and products. These options include the following: supply risk factors as such; two exponential functions of the supply risk factors, aimed at increasing the variability of the dataset, and the ratio between supply risk and production data, which reflect the size of the market, giving more importance to the materials used in small amounts in products and applications (like, e.g. specialty metals, that are often perceived as critical).Results and discussion: The results show how the impact depends on the supply risk factors or on the mass depending on the algorithm used. Even if there is no objective way to establish how much importance should be given to one aspect or the other, we conclude that the use of the factors “supply risk/production” results might better reflect CRM importance and therefore could be used in LCA for an assessment of resource security impact for EU. Applying an exponent to the supply risk factors, the values are spread on a wider range and it is possible to spot the CRM among the resources within an inventory.Conclusions: The choice of the indicator is based rather on how important is the need of identifying a CRM in the inventory, e.g. in order to optimize CRM use, explore substitution options and enhance recovery in waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent dynamics characterizing the Eurozone economy suggest the existence of a new policy trilemma faced by its member countries. According to this policy trilemma, there is a trade-off between free capital mobility, financial stability and fiscal policy flexibility. In this paper, we analyze the foundations of such a trade-off and, based on the data for 11 Eurozone countries, present an empirical investigation on the existence of the trilemma. The results highlight the existence of the trade-off, with some differences between member countries. The existence of this trilemma in the Eurozone provides arguments for implementing centralized financial supervision together with fiscal and monetary reforms that should strengthen the currency union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing, together with the negative effects of the recent economic and financial crisis that some European countries are still facing, have threatened the sustainability of public pension systems. In this context, voluntary private pensions have emerged as the most feasible alternative to supplement the minimum provided by Social Security Systems; however, this financial product does not enjoy its expected popularity. A potential explanation of this reality might be due to the fact that European countries are far from being homogeneous, nor their pensions systems. Therefore, any policy geared toward improving financial retirement planning should take into account these potential differences. As a first approach to their analysis, this paper proposes the existence of four different ‘social models’ in Europe -namely, Continental, Mediterranean, Nordic and Transitional-. Overall, empirical evidence confirmed the significant influence of country’ ‘social model’ on the decision to invest in retirement accounts on a sample of 31,468 individuals in 2013. It was also proved that this decision is positively related to age, household income and wealth, higher levels of formal education, job situation, good health status, and long-term planning horizons; and negatively related to age squared, household size or financial risk aversion. In short, future policies and reforms regarding private pensions should not only take into account the existence of individual differences among Europeans, but also the existence of differences depending on institutional and cultural country factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants underlying the internalization of proactive environmental management proposed by certifiable environmental management systems (EMSs) such as those set out in ISO 14001 and the European Management and Auditing Scheme (EMAS). Using a study based on 232 usable questionnaires from EMAS-registered organizations, we explored the influence of institutional pressures from different stakeholders and the role of corporate strategy in the 'substantial' versus 'symbolic' integration of environmental practices. The results highlighted that although institutional pressures generally strengthen the internalization of proactive environmental practices, the influence of stakeholders can either support the integration of these practices or encourage their superficial adoption. For example, while pressure from suppliers and shareholders contribute to corporate greening, pressure from customers and industrial associations tend to encourage greenwashing (i.e., the superficial and misleading adoption of environmental practices). Product quality-oriented strategies also positively influence EMS internalization. The paper sheds light on the institutional complexity underlying the substantial versus symbolic implementation of environmental practices, and questions the dominant isomorphic view of EMS adoption. The paper also bridges the gap between complementary approaches on corporate greening, notably neo-institutional and stakeholder theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often presented as a global pandemic spreading all over the world, COVID-19, however, hit not only countries but also regions differently. The objective of this paper is to focus on the spatial heterogeneity in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and to contribute to an understanding of the channels by which it spread, focusing on the regional socioeconomic dimension. For this, we use a dataset covering 125 European regions in 12 countries. Considering that the impact of the COVID-19 crisis differed sharply not only across countries but also across regions within the same country, the empirical strategy is based, on the one hand, on an exploratory analysis of spatial autocorrelations, which makes it possible to identify regional clusters of the disease. On the other hand, we use spatial regression models to capture the diffusion effect and the role of different families of regional factors in this process. We find that the share of older people in the population, GDP per capita, distance from achieving EU objectives, and the unemployment rate are correlated with high COVID-19 death rates. In contrast, the number of medical practitioners and hospital beds and the level of social trust are correlated with low COVID-19 death rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using process tracing, this paper charts the history of the changes in the EU's revenue since 1970, including package deals and the unforeseen consequences of change, comparing the positions of the Council to those of the European Commission and European Parliament. Those revenue decisions allowed European integration to proceed though without a fully autonomous budget as Member States became more careful to calculate their net benefits or costs in relation to the budget. In December 2013, the European Union's institutions established a High Level Group to recommend changes to the revenue base of the EU's budget. This reported in January 2017, proposing to resolve the effect of sub-optimal revenue and budget decisions made by the European Union over many years, to reduce direct national contributions, to minimise the risk of unforeseen consequences, and to combine revenue flows with steering effects to discourage certain forms of economic behaviour in line with the wider policy agenda of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]