This paper estimates the economic impact of the actual implementation of the Services Directive across the Member States based on the new data on barriers to cross-border provision and to establishment for the periods before and after the Directive. It is however still an updated prediction or...

This paper proposes a methodology for benchmarking unemployment benefits systems, with a view to assess reform needs and priorities. The methodology permits to assess different dimensions of unemployment benefit systems and to consider alternative relevant benchmarks. Looking at all relevant...

This paper reviews the available indicators in the European Union to monitor short-term labour cost developments, i.e. of quarterly frequency, with a special focus on the euro area. It clarifies concepts, provides information on availability and compares the indicators against various...

This report estimates possible macroeconomic effects of a pandemic taking place in the EU in 2006, using a quarterly macroeconomic model. The macroeconomic costs of a pandemic, that is the cost in terms of production lost due to illness and death measured as reductions in GDP growth and/or...

This report analyses the impact of product market reforms, in the form of the EU Single Market Programme, on the extent of product market competition and the subsequent effects of competition on innovation activity and productivity growth.The report first summarises the main messages from the...

The prohibition of state aid to investment and R&D in an integrated market such as the European Community is analysed in a Cournot oligopoly model where firms undertake investment or R&D to reduce their costs. Both strategic and non-strategic investment and R&D are considered. Governments in the...

The EU's structural reform agenda attaches a considerable weight to the establishment of efficiently working and integrated EU financial markets. While there is a firm consensus that a well-functioning financial sector is a precondition for the efficient allocation of resources and the...

One of the potential benefits of an economic approach to State aid control is to make relationships between the costs and the benefits of State aid more transparent and, by doing so, to provide guidance on how to focus State aid control efforts on those areas where the damage of State aid is the...

Everywhere in the industrialized world, population aging is putting social security systems under financial strain. As a result, social security systems are being reformed in many countries. In particular, various countries move from pure pay-as-you-go (PAYG) systems to pension systems that...

The failure of key EU Member States to respect the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper systematically...