The profound changes experienced by rural areas in Europe over the past couple of decades have resulted in obvious disadvantages: loss of employment due to changes in the agricultural sector, migration of young people towards urban centres, leading to a demographic imbalance, and insufficient...

This is the report of a conference held in Lisbon on 8-9 November 2007, organised by the Foundation in cooperation with the European Commission Leader+ Observatory, the Leader+ Network in Portugal and the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries (Ministério da...

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions organised a seminar for its company network on November 29-30, 2007, hosted by Santander at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. In intensive discussions over the two days, 32 representatives from companies,...

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions organised a seminar for its company network on November 29u009630, 2007, hosted by Santander at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. In intensive discussions over the two days, 32 representatives from companies,...

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions organised a seminar for its company network on November 29u009630, 2007, hosted by Santander at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. In intensive discussions over the two days, 32 representatives from companies,...

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions organised a seminar for its company network on November 29u009630, 2007, hosted by Santander at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. In intensive discussions over the two days, 32 representatives from companies,...

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions organised a seminar for its company network on November 29u009630, 2007, hosted by international bank Santander at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. In intensive discussions over the two days, 32...

Exchanges and other trading platforms are often vertically integrated to carry out trading, clearing and settlement as one operation. We show that such vertical silos can prevent efficiency gains from horizontal consolidation of trading and settlement platforms to be realized. Independent of the...

An unprecedented process of financial consolidation has taken place in the European Union over the past decade. Building on earlier US evidence, we examine the impact of strategic similarities between bidders and targets on post-merger financial performance. We find that, on average, bank...

The paper investigates small business lending as an information problem. It models the effects of information asymmetries within the bank combined with fixed wages. Two kinds of inefficiencies arise in equilibrium: the credit officer either sometimes shirks or he is occasionally fired. In both...