Social scientists have long argued that developed countries are more and more responsible for climate change because they externalise pollution to less developed countries. This paper offers a way to quantify climate responsibility by calculating carbon footprints and carbon balances between...

This paper reviews institutional and structural challenges in countries preparing for EU membership, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Sound institutions and solid economic structures are not only the...

This paper analyses real income convergence in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) to the most advanced EU economies between 2000 and 2016. The relevance of this topic stems both from the far-reaching implications of real income convergence for economic welfare and the importance...

The main question addressed in this study is the performance of the labour markets in the Western Balkans. The aim is to find out whether they can deliver growth of employment and decline of unemployment in the medium run and whether they can withstand short-term shocks due to changes in demand...

The European Commission has set a target date of 2025 for Western Balkan EU accession, while also outlining a broader new strategy which includes Brussels taking a more active role in solving political disputes in the region, and upgrading infrastructure as part of the Berlin Process. We welcome...

In this policy brief, we study the development of trade integration, specifically the participation in global value chains, of the Western Balkan countries. Using a multi-country input-output Database, called the 'wiiw MC IOD', we first analyse in a descriptive way the trends in economic...

Die Verbreitung der neuartigen Krankheit COVID-19 stellt alle Volkswirtschaften rund um den Globus vor gesundheitliche und wirtschaftliche Herausforderungen. Von der Pandemie und den Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Ausbreitung des Coronavirus sind internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen besonders...

Die import- und exportseitige Abhängigkeit deutscher Industriebranchen von China auf der Vorleistungsebene wird hier mit einer Auswertung der internationalen Input-Output-Tabellen von FIGARO (Full International and Global Accounts for Research in Input-Output Analysis) ermittelt, die von...

This volume was prepared by Sebastian Benz while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes five self-contained chapters. All chapters discuss different...

The EU candidate and potential candidate countries have made considerable progress in economic transition and integration into the world economy within less than two decades. Nevertheless, gaps in terms of income per capita relative to the euro area remain large. This suggests that the...