In the advent of postal market liberalization in several European countries we expect that the incumbent operators anticipate entry by competitors who are not required to offer universal service, i.e. coverage of the entire country and uniform pricing. The market for postal service exhibits...

Given the coexistent EU priorities concerning the competitiveness of European industries and international emissions regulation at the company level, this paper assesses the efficiency and competitiveness implications of linking the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to emerging trading schemes...

Energy markets and energy-intensive industries in all EU member states especially in Germany are subject to a diverse set of policies related to climate change. We analyse the potential efficiency losses from simultaneous application of emission taxes and emissions trading in qualitative and...

Die vorliegenden Überlegungen sind darauf gerichtet, die Ideen und wesentlichen Gedanken Nationaler Innovationssysteme aufzugreifen und in den Kontext einer wissensbasierten Ökonomie zu stellen. Neben den Akteuren oder Spielern geht es um die Regeln und Funktionsmechanismen und schließlich...

Within the economic profession, it is a widely held view that the fiscal criteria of the Maastricht treaty are arbitrary numbers without economic foundation. Much of this criticism seems to overlook an important aspect - the strategic dimension of the criteria. This paper focuses on one...

Are the characteristics of the exchange rate regime relevant for the degree of fiscal discipline? What are the conclusions for fiscal behavior in Europe after the transition to EMU? These are the central questions that are analyzed in this paper from a theoretical point of view. After a general...

This paper evaluates the appropriateness of the standard methodologies and the quality of the data frequently used to analyse labour market dynamics in Europe. Our results indicate that, due to recall error and heterogeneous survey design, the retrospective approach tends to result in a...

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...