This paper considers the effects of central bank independence, labor market institutions and the political partisanship on economic performance. In particular, we test if the partisanship of the government and the degree of central bank independence affect the relationship between labor market...

A large number of European countries still cope with historically high unemployment rates. One line of research that has been followed to explain European unemployment and the differences among European countries is the impact labour market institutions. One important channel through which...

This paper introduces two datasets, AUGAMA, a panel of European firms for the period 1996-2011, and EUMULNET, a European Multinational Network data set. These datasets are constructed on the basis of the Amadeus database issued by Bureau Van Dijk Electronic Publishing. We document the process of...

This paper investigates the effect of foreign direct investment on the productivity of local firms. We decompose traditional country-wide spillover measures in different components according to both distance between foreign and domestic firms and timesince- foreign-entry. We find larger and...

This study measures the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of local firms. Unlike earlier studies, our empirical approach does not require that FDI manifests immediate or permanent effects. We find that foreign entry initially affects productivity of local competitors...

This study investigates the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of local firms. In contrast to existing literature our empirical approach does not require FDI to have immediate or permanent effects. We find that foreign entry initially negatively affects local...

In this paper a semiparametric stochastic metafrontier approach is used to obtain insight into firm-level competitiveness in Europe. We differ from standard TFP studies at the firm level as we simultaneously allow for inefficiency, noise and do not impose a functional form on the input-output...

We contribute to the investment-cash ow sensitivity debate by creating a new index to identify the supply of finance to firms. We find that firms that are considered constrained according to our index pay a higher interest rate on their debt, and display the highest investment-cash fl ow...

This paper develops and estimates a small macroeconomic model of the Russian economy. The model is tailored to analyse the impact of the oil price, the exchange rate, private sector confidence and fiscal policy on economic performance. Simulations suggest that the Russian economy is vulnerable...