The NATural GAS model is an integrated model of the European wholesale gas market providing long-run projections of supply, transport, storage and consumption patterns in the model region, aggregated in 5-year periods, distinguishing two seasons (winter and summer). Model results include...

In the past, the European gas market was dominated by state-owned monopolists but since the start of the liberalisation, privatisation and re-regulation in the early 1990s, the market has fundamentally changed. Nevertheless, governments are still involved in the gas industry, not only in gas...

In 2001 the European Commission proposed the introduction of a European system of trading in greenhouse gases. This proposal is currently subject to fierce debates. Opponents to the proposal of the Commission do not question the efficiency effects of emissions trading in general. The economic...

This memorandum explores the question whether regulation in telecommunications encourages or hampers the development of new technologies. Contrary to other network industries, the telecommunications industry is more and more characterized by several, competing networks, such as cable, copper,...

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows have increased substantially in the past two decades. These developments have motivated the appearance of a large number of empirical papers that test the expected benefits that FDI inflows are assumed to bring to the host countries. We survey the recent...

One of the achievements of the of the European Union (EU) is the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour between the member states. The internal market for goods seems to function well, after the implementation of the Single Market programme in 1988. That is however not the case for...

The total pension premium rate consists of two components, the contribution rate and the catching-up premium rate. The contribution rate finances the accrual of pension rights while the catching-up premium finances (possible) wealth deficits of a pension fund. The contribution rate and the...

This paper explains the theoretical background, the analytical methods, calibrations, assumptions and computations of the skill inputs for the WorldScan analysis on the skills targets of the Lisbon agenda. The Lisbon skills targets are implemented in WorldScan using most recent theoretical and...

WorldScan, the CGE model for international policy analysis and long-term scenario studies, is applied regularly at the CPB. The production technology in the model is that of constant returns to scale and the market structure is characterized by perfect competition. However, it is a well known...

Characteristic roots, or eigenvalues, are a useful tool in the study of linear dynamic economic models. The relation between the roots and the model coefficients are expressed in the derivatives of the former with respect to the latter. In general, the roots are complex numbers. This note...