Search

This report informs the debate on Europe’s economic competitiveness and how it can be sustained under the pressures of globalisation. It presents a series of research findings from different areas of analytical work carried out at the ‘Growth and Innovation’ Directorate of the Joint Research Centre. The focus is on current challenges, with topics ranging from global value chains analysis to competition policy, and from the possible reasons for the recent EU productivity stagnation to the economic damage implied by FDI restrictions. The common denominator of all contributions is their aim to inform discussions on competitiveness and their relevance for EU economic policy., JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadership

High levels of labour productivity growth are a key element to maintaining high standards of living in the long run in Europe. However, the EU has been experiencing a significant slowdown in labour productivity and total factor productivity growth, a phenomenon which has even exacerbated over the last decade, contrary to what would be expected in the recovery from the financial crisis. The trends and driving forces of the current sluggish productivity growth in Europe are analysed in this report with a special emphasis on services. After reviewing the literature in the field, the report zooms in on the role played by factors such as structural change, intangible investments, firm size distribution, firm demography, labour dynamics, zombie firms, business cycle dynamics and public expenditure and assesses their impact on productivity growth based on a variety of data sources and methodologies. The report focusses on the main results at EU level and includes some cross-country and cross-sectoral comparisons wherever possible., JRC.B.7-Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growth

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is defined in the Commission Communication “Public procurement for a better environment” as "a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.” This is a voluntary instrument, which public authorities can use to provide industry with incentives for developing and marketing more environmentally sound products . The primary goals of establishing GPP criteria for water-based heaters (also referred to as "heating generators" in this document) are to increase the energy efficiency during operation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as the use-phase has been identified to contribute the most to the environmental impacts caused by this product group. In addition to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions, other environmental impact parameters and environmental improvement potentials are taken into account when developing the criteria, such as: lower air emissions related to energy production and consumption, lower resource consumption, potentially higher resource efficiency management (with respect to the issue of recycling and recyclability), etc. Finally, the products covered by the GPP criteria should also bring public customers direct cost savings when evaluated using a life-cycle cost perspective (e.g. lower overall costs due to lower energy bills). This technical analysis is based on a life-cycle analysis of different heating technologies. The technical background report includes a summary of the life-cycle analysis methodology and results, and a discussion on environmental improvement potential that the EU GPP criteria for this product group may bring with respect to the heating technologies currently existing and used in the market today, JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumption

The Preliminary Report presents background information on flushing toilets and urinals, gathered with the purpose of the EU Ecolabel and GPP criteria development. Section 2 gives the project background information. Section 3 presents the scope and the main definitions for the product group. Section 4 reports the main results of the economic and market analysis, Section 5 outlines the user behaviour, and Section 6 gives an overview of the main labelling schemes. Section 7 shows the main environmental impacts for the base cases, whereas life cycle costs are presented in Section 8. BAT and BNAT are reviewed in Section 9, and finally, Section 10 provides an estimation of improvement potential derived from the information previously analysed., JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumption

The following Technical Report presents the final proposal for EU Ecolabel and EU GPP criteria on Flushing Toilets and Urinals, and explains the rationale behind each criterion. The primary goal of establishing EU Ecolabel and GPP criteria for flushing toilets and urinals is to increase their water efficiency during operation, as water consumption in the use phase has been identified to contribute most to the environmental impact caused by this product group. Further, other aspects related to the product’s life cycle, which improvement can bring environmental benefits, are also considered. Establishing ecological criteria for flushing toilets and urinals and promoting appropriately the awarded products, if accepted by a wider range of producers and users, will contribute to greener product purchases, which shall reduce the consumption of water. Besides, this should also result in other environmental benefits, like lower water pollution and eutrophication, energy saving and lower related air emissions, resource consumption and potentially higher resource efficiency management. Finally, the environmentally friendlier products should also bring private and public customers direct cost savings., JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumption

In the recent decades, the increase in the world population, the economic expansion and the globalization of the economy have led to a dramatic growth in the use of some natural resources and in the levels of pollution. These trends have coincided with a growing concern about some critical questions for the future of humankind such as resource scarcity and depletion, climate change, environmental degradation, the limits of growth or the inequalities in the access to natural resources across countries. In this context arises the need to develop a comprehensive dataset of reliable and comparable economic and environmental information that contributes to a better understanding of the complexity of these issues, and supporting evidence-based policy-making. In order to comply with this need, this Pocketbook presents a series of indicators describing the evolution of the use of natural resources and the emission of air pollutants around the world, in relation to production, consumption and trade activities. Based on different analysis derived from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), this publication includes information on 6 environmental dimensions: land use, material extraction, water use, and emission of acid substances, greenhouse gases and ozone precursors. The time frame covered is the period between 1995 and 2008, and the geographical scope includes the EU-27 Member States, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, the United States of America and the Rest of the World. The information presented in this publication can be classified into 3 different groups of indicators: 1. The "Production" or "Domestic" side indicators report for each country the use of resources as primary inputs (i.e. domestic extraction of materials or land cultivated) and the emissions directly generated by national economic activities. 2. The "Consumption" or "Footprint" indicators show the resources or pollution embodied in the domestic final demand of one country, regardless of where these resources/emissions were used/emitted. 3. The "Trade" indicators account for the resources/pollution embodied international trade. This article quantifies for the first time not only the domestic employment effects of foreign EU exports but also the correct number of jobs generated through intra-European trade (Single Market) in the production of such exported commodities. The literature has neglected very often the latter effects mainly due to the lack of an appropriate methodology and database. The empirical evidence shows that the EU has really progressed during the period 2000-2007 towards a more vertically integrated economy, reducing the labour intensity of the goods and services exported outside the EU, trading most prominently within the EU Single Market and subsequently, generating an increasing number of jobs. Despite the reduction in the labour intensity of the European exports, the associated employment grew from 22 to 25 million jobs, out of which 9 million jobs were created due to spillover and feedback effects associated to the Single Market

In the recent decades, the increase in the world population, the economic expansion and the globalization of the economy have led to a dramatic growth in the use of some natural resources and in the levels of pollution. These trends have coincided with a growing concern about some critical questions for the future of humankind such as resource scarcity and depletion, climate change, environmental degradation, the limits of growth or the inequalities in the access to natural resources across countries. In this context arises the need to develop a comprehensive dataset of reliable and comparable economic and environmental information that contributes to a better understanding of the complexity of these issues, and supporting evidence-based policy-making. In order to comply with this need, this Pocketbook presents a series of indicators describing the evolution of the use of natural resources and the emission of air pollutants around the world, in relation to production, consumption and trade activities. Based on different analysis derived from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), this publication includes information on 6 environmental dimensions: land use, material extraction, water use, and emission of acid substances, greenhouse gases and ozone precursors. The time frame covered is the period between 1995 and 2008, and the geographical scope includes the EU-27 Member States, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, the United States of America and the Rest of the World. The information presented in this publication can be classified into 3 different groups of indicators: 1. The "Production" or "Domestic" side indicators report for each country the use of resources as primary inputs (i.e. domestic extraction of materials or land cultivated) and the emissions directly generated by national economic activities. 2. The "Consumption" or "Footprint" indicators show the resources or pollution embodied in the domestic final demand of one country, regardless of where these resources/emissions were used/emitted. 3. The "Trade" indicators account for the resources/pollution embodied international trade. This article quantifies for the first time not only the domestic employment effects of foreign EU exports but also the correct number of jobs generated through intra-European trade (Single Market) in the production of such exported commodities. The literature has neglected very often the latter effects mainly due to the lack of an appropriate methodology and database. The empirical evidence shows that the EU has really progressed during the period 2000-2007 towards a more vertically integrated economy, reducing the labour intensity of the goods and services exported outside the EU, trading most prominently within the EU Single Market and subsequently, generating an increasing number of jobs. Despite the reduction in the labour intensity of the European exports, the associated employment grew from 22 to 25 million jobs, out of which 9 million jobs were created due to spillover and feedback effects associated to the Single Market

This report presents the results and conclusions of a research carried out by the JRC/IPTS analysing two demand-side measures that can help improving the environmental performance of cars: The first instrument, the feebate system, is a way to differentiate the registration tax according to the CO2 emissions from cars. The second instrument, the scrappage policy is intended to encourage the owners of old cars to scrap their car earlier. The potential and consequences of technical options to reduce car weight are also analysed. The report builds a comprehensive assessment of these policy options at EU level, covering all major environmental life cycle impacts and the different economic impacts. The report is built upon IPTS research work, supported with a study subcontracted to a research consortium led by Transport&Mobility Leuven (TML) and involving Öko-Institut and ISI-Fraunhofer., JRC.J.2-The economics of climate change, energy and transport