The EU economies and their labour markets will face new challenges in the near future as the Union enlarges to cover the CEE countries and the mobility of labour becomes free within the region. This paper first discusses estimates made on the likely magnitude of the coming immigration and then...

We analyse the development of labour productivity and hours worked by the working-aged population in the EU25 countries and other OECD countries in 1960-2004. We emphasise the possible effects of taxes, benefits and other labour-market variables. First, we describe the trends in productivity and...

The paper analyzes the appointment of the European Commission as a strategic game between members of the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The focal equilibrium results in Commissioners that duplicate policy preferences of national Council representatives. Different internal...

In this paper, we examine the relationship between the euro exchange rate and domestic inflation in the EMU area. This issue has gained importance as the euro has depreciated around 20 per cent during the first eighteen months of EMU, and is now a serious concern for the European Central Bank...

Economic convergence of the new member countries (NMCs) of the EU towards the incumbent EU countries (EU-15), not only in terms of real income, but also in nominal terms, is of paramount importance for both partners. We build a dynamic CGE model, starting from the Balassa-Samuelson two-sector...

Using pooled mean-group estimation we first analyse conditional convergence in the EU15 area in 1960-2002. Conditional convergence is well documented for the EU15 countries and deeper European integration is mostly shown to have fastened convergence. Also higher investment, lower public...

This paper examines the economic effects of the opening of the former Soviet Union. The analysis carried out in the paper is two-fold. First we simulate the impact of the eastern enlargement of the EU and, second, we analyse how deeper integration between the EU and FSU contributes to this. The...

Tässä muistiossa käsitellään EU:n itälaajenemisen vaikutuksia Suomen tuotantorakenteeseen. Tarkastelu jakautuu neljään osaan. Ensiksi tarkastellaan KIE-maiden integroitumista kohti EU:ta. Todetaan, että EU:n laajenemisen suhteen vallitsee merkittävä epäsymmetria siinä, että...

Europe’s catching up of the US in per capita income levels has, with some exceptions, come to a halt and turned into a decline during the 1980s and 1990s with a simultaneous secular worsening in the EU unemployment situation. The aim of the paper is to present a systematic description of the...

The failure to achieve equitable access to university studies has turned the focus to the funding of European higher education systems. Since the large amounts of public subsidies injected in tertiary-level education have not succeeded in reducing disparities in access for children from...