Since its inception in 1995, more than 330 disputes have been raised under the WTO Dispute Settlement System. The major players in world trade - the EU and the USA - are also the busiest users of this instrument. After looking at links between economic integration and WTO involvement and a...

EU's 2007 enlargement by Bulgaria and Romania is evaluated by applying a simple macroeconomic integration model able to encompass as many of the theoretically predicted integration effects possible. The direct integration effects of Bulgaria and Romania spill-over to EU15, including Austria and...

Advanced industrial countries have been exhibiting a steady decline of the labor income shares in the last two decades. We explain this phenomenon by resorting to the old Stolper-Samuelson theorem. The conclusions concerning the impact of free trade on the income distribution are unambiguous in...

We present a two-country New Open Economy Macro model of the Austrian economy within the European Union's Economic & Monetary Union (EMU). The model includes both nominal and real frictions that have proven to be important in matching business cycle facts, and that allows for an investigation of...

We build a fully micro-founded dynamic general equilibrium (DSGE) model, which is estimated employing Bayesian methods. The model captures the most salient features of Austria as a small open economy, the Euro Area (EA) and the United States (U.S.). Further analysis is conducted through...

At its 10th anniversary the EMU had to stand the baptism of fire caused by the "Great Recession" 2009. By and large it mastered this test. The introduction of the Euro, however, has brought to light the latent weaknesses in competitiveness of some member states of the Euro area, consisting up to...

The Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the Republic of Korea (EU-South Korea FTA) is the first of the new generation of FTAs launched in 2007 as part of the "Global Europe" initiative. These agreements, based on solid economic criteria, will represent a stepping stone for future...

Nach einer bemerkenswert raschen Erholung von der globalen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise 2008/09 schlitterten die meisten Industriestaaten in eine Staatsschuldenkrise. In Europa hat sie sich, ausgehend von Griechenland Ende 2009/Anfang 2010 vor allem auf die Peripheriestaaten der Eurozone...

Das Kernelement der Europäischen Integration, der "Binnenmarkt", feiert heuer das 20-jährige Bestehen. Österreich hat seit dem Beitritt zur EU im Jahr 1995 an allen vertiefenden Schritten der EU-Integration teilgenommen. Nicht nur politisch ist Österreich durch die EU-Mitgliedschaft...

Mit einem umfassenden und in der Öffentlichkeit höchst umstrittenen Handels- und Investitionsabkommen (TTIP) wollen die EU und die USA die größte Freihandelszone der Welt errichten und damit Wachstum und Beschäftigung stimulieren. Zwar prognostizieren alle bisherigen TTIP-Studien positive...