The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the 'Fit for 55' update of the European Union's CO₂ regulation is up to the task of fixing its past mistakes and putting Europe on course to reach net zero mobility by 2050, while also dealing with the new set of challenges that arises with the...

This paper develops a small-scale two country model following the New Open Economy Macroecoenomics paradigm. Under autarky the model specializes to the familiar three equation New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. We discuss two challenges to successful estimation of...

This paper empirically investigates the differences in the motives of raising privatisation proceeds for a panel of EU countries from 1990 to 2000. More specifically, we test whether privatisations can be mainly interpreted (a) as ingredients of a larger reform package of economic liberalisation...

If firms borrow working capital to finance production, then nominal interest rates have a direct influence on inflation dynamics, which appears to be the case empirically. However, interest rates may only partly mirror the cost of working capital. In this paper we explore the role of bank...

One of the fundamental problems of the positive theory of income taxation is explaining why the statutory income tax schedules in all industrialized democracies are marginal-rate progressive. While it is commonly believed that this is but a simple consequence of the fact that the number of...

This report provides an introduction to personnel training (on-the-job training) literature in the economics field. Theoretical models dealing with the initiation of training programmes and their effects on pay at the individual level are discussed, and empirical research on wage effects is...

This paper contributes to the small empirical literature that attempts to estimate tax reaction functions of national governments competing with other national governments. After presenting a simple theoretical model, we estimate reaction functions for European countries for a pure Nash model...

This paper presents a reappraisal of unemployment movements in the European Union. Our analysis is based on the chain reaction theory of unemployment, which focuses on (a) the interaction among labor markets adjustment processes, (b) the interplay between these adjustment processes and the...

Three current account imbalances - one very large deficit (the United States) and two surpluses (Japan and the Euro area) - are subjected to a minimalist structural interpretation. Though simple, this interpretation enables us to assess how much of each of the imbalances require a real exchange...