There is a symmetrical debate in two Euro area core countries: in France about the restrictive fiscal policy of Germany, leading to a huge external surplus, in Germany about the insufficient compliance with fiscal rules and the lack of structural reforms in France. What are the real causes of...

We scrutinize the role of capital flows in competitiveness in a set of seven euroarea member countries (Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic) in the context of real convergence and crisis. A specific focus is on Greece. The paper extends the seminal...

The paper scrutinizes the role of wages and capital flows for competitiveness in the new EU member states in the context of real convergence. For this purpose it extends the seminal Balassa-Samuelson model by international capital markets. The augmented Balassa-Samuelson model is linked to the...

In the past decade, a set of euro area countries has accumulated large current account deficits. After a brief relaxation of the euro area internal imbalances in the wake of the financial crisis, it appears as if this pattern arises anew when times normalize again and Germany still sticks to...

The paper scrutinizes the role of wages and capital flows for competitiveness in the new EU member states in the context of real convergence. For this purpose it extends the seminal Balassa-Samuelson model by international capital markets. The augmented Balassa-Samuelson model is linked to the...

In the past decade, a set of euro area countries has accumulated large current account defi cits. After a brief relaxation of the euro area internal imbalances in the wake of the fi nancial crisis, it appears as if this pattern arises anew when times normalize again and Germany still sticks to...

The study explores to what extent adaptation to digital change has affected regional employment growth and regional disparities in Germany over the past decade. Using data from administrative sources the analysis finds no evidence for a net decline in employment in connection with technological...

In this paper, we study the long- and short-run relationship between regional public debt and economic performance for a sample of German federal states over the period of four decades (1970-2010). By choosing a sample of regional entities with comparable institutional settings, we complement...

We use the case of EU enlargement in 2004 to investigate the impact of economic integration on regional income growth. Being particularly interested in studying the effects 'at the margin', we track the relative performance of regions adjacent to both sides of the integration border vis-à-vis...

We use four subsequent EU enlargement waves over three decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s) to assess the regional effects of macro-institutional changes. Our focus is set on EU internal border regions which are specifically exposed to international integration, but it remains unclear how they benefit...