Working time flexibility is a potentially important lever to foster the reconciliation of work, family, and private life. Giving workers greater autonomy and more control over their working times could empower them to better balance their work and non-work demands. This could then in turn lead...

This report examines the development of the electoral system in Russia, with a particular emphasis on the evolution of political parties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It analyses changes during the Russian Federation’s three presidential administrations (Yeltsin, Putin,...

This report summarises and synthesises the findings of a research project entitled ‘Reconciling work, private and family life: production of statistical reports’, which consisted of six related Short Statistical Reports (SSRs). The SSRs examined the topics of the Barcelona childcare targets...

The markets for bank accounts across the EU differ considerably among Member States, i.e. they are still fragmented along national lines and there is limited integration across different Member States. But even within national markets, there is evidence of major obstacles to consumer choice and...

There has been much discussion of the differences in macroeconomic performance and prospects between the US, Japan and the euro area. Using Markov-switching techniques, in this paper we identify and compare specifically their major business-cycle features and examine the case for a common...

This paper presents evidence for structural differences in economic growth dynamics between the current EU and the central- and eastern European accession countries. Two important results emerge from the analysis. First, accession countries have posted higher average growth and wider output...