Ex ante evaluation of policy reform proposals in general relies either on microsimulation models or computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. This paper describes how the Centre of European Economic Research (ZEW) has merged two established models - the so-called STSM and PACE-L models – in...

The specification of parameters is a crucial task in the development of economic models. The objective of this paper is to improve the standard parameter specification of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. On that account, we illustrate how Optimal Fingerprint Detection Methods (OFDM)...

The formulation of market equilibrium problems as mixed complementarity problems (MCP)permits integration of bottom-up programming models of the energy system into top-down general equilibrium models of the overall economy. Despite the coherence and logical appeal of the integrated MCP approach,...

We motivate the formulation of market equilibria as a mixed complementarity problem (MCP) in order to bridge the gap between bottom-up energy system models and top-down general equilibrium models for energy policy analysis. Our objective is primarily pedagogic. We first lay out that the MCP...

This chapter reviews options of labor market modelling in a CGE framework. On the labor supply side, two principal modelling options are distinguished and discussed: aggregated, representative households and micro simulation based on individual household data. On the labor demand side, we focus...

This paper analyses the interplay between international trade, regional adaptation and North-to-South transfers for funding adaptation within the framework of a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, where impacts of climate change depend on changes in precipitation and temperature. If...

Ambitious unilateral EU environmental policy has raised concerns about adverse competitiveness implications for European energy-intensive and export-oriented sectors. We analyze the economic and environmental implications of two different measures to address these concerns in the EU Emission...

Labour market reforms that are designed to stimulate labour supply at the lower end of the wage distribution can never be precisely restricted to affect only the target group. Spillovers to and feedback from other segments of the labour market are unavoidable and may counteract the direct...

In the absence of an international agreement on climate policy, unilateral carbon abatement creates two problems: It tends to have a detrimental effect on domestic competitiveness, and it leads to an increase in carbon emissions abroad (leakage). This paper analyses two policies that have...

In the tax policy debate, differentiation of value-added taxes is often justified by distributional concerns. Our quantitative analysis for Germany indicates that such concerns are misplaced. We find that the abolition of VAT differentiation has only negligible redistributive effects. Instead,...