This paper intends to understand the major institutional factors related to the economic development of the European Union (EU) countries in the last two decades. It provides some contributions to the institutionalist debate of the present crisis of the European Union, and within it, the...

This paper sets out to examine the impact of the quality of local and regional governments on the returns of investment, focusing on the returns of EU structural and cohesion funds. Despite the widespread belief that the quality of government affects the returns of public investments, whether...

The objective of this paper is to analyze convergence in institutional, social, and macroeconomic conditions between EU member states. Our analysis covers the period 1995-2013 and considers the potential impact of the Great Recession. With this aim, we use a composite indicator that combines...

This paper explores investment characteristics of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). We show that the EU ETS demonstrates significant price volatility, risk-adjusted return under-performance and positive correlations with international...

The introduction of Directive 2003/30 EC of the European Union (EU) on biofuels had the ambitious goal to both reduce greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and create new jobs in rural areas. The challenge lies in the availability of premises to convert biomass in energy, which depends on the...

In this paper the authors conduct a meta-analysis to examine the link between R&D spending and economic growth in the EU and other regions. The results suggest that the growth-enhancing effect of R&D in the EU15 countries does not differ from that in other countries in general, but it is less...

After completing the painful transition of the 1990s, former communist countries enjoyed a period of rapid economic growth which was underpinned by three groups of factors: (i) benefits of market reforms and transition-related restructuring in the 1990s; (ii) increasing participation in the...

In this paper we conduct a meta-analysis to examine the link between R&D spending and economic growth in the EU and other regions. The results suggest that the growth-enhancing effect of R&D in the EU15 countries does not differ from that in other countries in general, but it is less significant...

El artículo compara las experiencias económicas de Irlanda y Finlandia, que son los dos países que en el periodo 1994-2003 alcanzaron las tasas de crecimiento más altas de toda la Unión Europea. En este tiempo, las dos economías se han reorientado hacia un nuevo patrón de especialización...