This paper analyzes the role of labor market institutions in explaining the development of shadow economies in European countries. The analysis uses several alternative measures of the shadow sector, and examines the effects of labor institutions on the shadow sector in two specific regions: new...

This paper analyzes the role of labor market institutions in explaining developments of shadow economies in European countries. We use several alternative measures of the shadow sector to examine the effects of labor market institutions on shadow sector in two specific regions, the old and the...

This paper examines migration trends in the European Union since the enlargements of 2004-2007, which brought 100 million citizens of eleven Central and Eastern European countries into the EU. We examine country- and regional-level data on migration trends and show how European integration...

This paper analyses the European budget and the position of the ten new member states. We argue that the EU budget should be reconsidered, as the Union has expanded to 27 member states and has become more heterogeneous. The budget priorities must be re-oriented towards potentially productive...

In this paper, we track fiscal authority behaviour in the ten new EU member states (NSM) in the period which immediately preceded their EU accession. We first present basic stylized facts about public budgets of those countries. The paper then analyses reasons which led to periods of fiscal...

The Czech social-security system is hampered by the ageing population, similarly as all European systems. The discussion of remedies is still very rudimentary. Pro-reform arguments concentrate on the non-sustainability of the current system in the long term and on the miserable returns the...

This paper is focused . using the example of the Czech Republic since 1993 . on a description of the hidden risks, implicitly existing in the system of public finances during the transition period (from a centrally planned towards market economy). The starting assumption is that public budgets...

The European Union accepted 10 new member states (NMS) in 2004, eight of which were former socialist countries. New members have had to adjust their economic policies to EU standards. Perhaps most difficult has been fiscal policy, where NMS must comply with the Stability and Growth Pact rules....

In this paper, we set out to examine an efficient fiscal-policy framework for a monetary union. We illustrate that fiscal policy’s bias toward budget deficit only temporarily ceased at the end of the 20th century as European countries endeavored to qualify for euro-zone membership, which...

Ten Central European countries became members of the European Union in the years 2004 - 2007. They constitute 20% of the EU’s total population; and even though their economic output is much lower, it rises dynamically. New members’ impact on the EU policies has nevertheless been limited....