This paper investigates the relationship between the magnitude of automatic stabilizers in the tax and transfer systems of 19 EU countries and the US, and discretionary fiscal stimulus packages passed by these countries during the recent economic crisis. In particular, we ask whether countries...

The economic and social crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and around the world is without precedent since World War II if not before. With more than 40 million known cases in Europe in one year, and over 900 000 deaths (March 2020 to March 2021), governments have stepped up their...

This working paper is intended to shed light on a pressing issue: the apparent growth-dependency of European welfare states at a time of weak growth prospects and strong criticisms of growth. Indeed, while the notion of going beyond GDP growth is gaining momentum in the European Union, as...

Die Effizienz der öffentlichen Verwaltung ist ein bedeutender Faktor für die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Mitgliedsländern der Europäischen Union und nimmt über verschiedene Kanäle Einfluss auf das unternehmerische Umfeld. Firmen interagieren hierbei in zahlreichen administrativen Schritten...

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 has attempted to examine the impacts of competition policy reforms on the efficiency of the Philippine commercial banking system. It uses the stochastic frontier approach to come up with estimates of profit efficiency and cost inefficiency measures. The results are quite interesting....

This note argues that the solutions to the euro-area crisis proposed by the EU governing institutions in cooperation with the IMF, based on further austerity and wage cuts, will worsen the crisis. They are unlikely to reduce both sovereign and external debt ratios of countries experiencing these...