This Working Paper examines options for the design of a workable fiscal union for the euro area. It provides a comparative study of fiscal institutions in the US and euro area in order to supply lessons from the operation of the US fiscal regime that could inform the design of the, hitherto...

The purpose of the paper is to study the European Union - Turkey customs union (CU) of 1995 covering trade in industrial goods. The customs union decision of 1995 extending to rules and disciplines on various regulatory border and behind-the-border policies covers in particular customs reform,...

In the present study, we ask how economic integration affects the location of economic activities, and spatial distribution of market potential, in Europe. The theoretical framework is based on the new economic geography approach in trade analysis literature. Empirical analysis transforms data...

Using pooled mean-group estimation we first analyse conditional convergence in the EU15 area in 1960-2002. Conditional convergence is well documented for the EU15 countries and deeper European integration is mostly shown to have fastened convergence. Also higher investment, lower public...

This paper examines the economic effects of the opening of the former Soviet Union. The analysis carried out in the paper is two-fold. First we simulate the impact of the eastern enlargement of the EU and, second, we analyse how deeper integration between the EU and FSU contributes to this. The...

This paper examines the involvement of the CEECs into regional and global production networks over the period 1999 to 2009. We employ a theoretically justified gravity model which incorporates the extensive margin of trade and accounts for firm heterogeneity. We first estimate the model for...

This paper highlights the economic meaning of the size of the state for members of the European Union, thereby making the economic success of EU states statistically tangible. Firstly, we show in descriptive illustrations that the theoretically expected characteristics of small countries clearly...