The economic convergence among European regions over the period 1980-2006 is analysed in the first place by using a conditional β-convergence model and a distance-based weight matrix and secondarily by a spatially-conditioned stochastic kernel approach. A Spatial Autoregressive model which...

The paper analyses the European Union sub-national governments' tax revenue structures and their dynamic during the last decades. Tax composition obtained a considerable interest during the recent years, particularly after the recent global financial and economic crisis. In many European Union...

This paper reconsiders the theoretical foundations of EU regional policy in economics. It begins with a discussion of the line of thought of its prevalent explanation in equilibrium economics which is focusing on market failures as its key underpinning and which is the major toolkit of...

Regional economic development is driven by the accumulation of production factors. More traditional factors like labour and physical capital are accumulated under the law of diminishing returns. This, in turn, allows less developed regions to better perform. Recent branches of theoretical and...

Numerous studies have focused on the role of EU regional policy in fostering growth and convergence among European regions, why conducting another one? We argue that two facts are still lacking in the actual academic debate in order to get a sound empirical identification strategy and reliable...

This paper describes some of the features of a new dynamic general equilibrium framework (RHOMOLO) being developed at the European Commission (JRC-IPTS, together with DG REGIO) for evaluating EU Cohesion Policy. The design of the model reflects the objectives of Cohesion Policy, and a broader...

This paper posits a new approach to the 'wage equation' of the New Economic Geography (NEG). On one side, it is shown that the NEG provides a spatial explanation of marginal costs, instead of wages. On the other side, and focusing on the statistical properties of the data, it is explained why...

We investigate the trade-off between financial stability and competition policy by focusing on the merger of ABN AMRO and Fortis Bank NL in the Dutch retail banking market. The financial crisis delayed the completion of the merger giving rise to anti-competitive behavior in the transitory...