Quality, independence and efficiency are the key components of effective justice systems, a crucial condition to ensure the proper functioning of important drivers of growth in the EU. This paper focuses on judicial efficiency and investigates the impact of certain structural reforms affecting...

Based on a new database of bilateral financial flows among euro area countries and their major world partners, this paper explores the role of financial links in the accumulation and then adjustment of current account imbalances in the euro area. The data show that the geography of financial...

The cyclically-adjusted budget balance (CAB) is the backbone of the EU framework of fiscal surveillance, both in its preventive and corrective arms. The concept corresponds to the budget balance prevailing if the economy was running at potential. After correcting for the one-off and temporary...

This study examines the impact of reforms aimed at reducing red tape barriers for new firms and new exporters in 17 EU Member States. The results confirm that higher bureaucratic barriers are associated with lower entry dynamics and suggest that recent reforms in Portugal, Spain and Italy should...

Ireland's successful conclusion of the financial assistance programme provides an important opportunity to assess the prospects of the Irish economy to achieve good growth, to prevent future banking crises and to lock in budgetary and fiscal improvements that were achieved over the course of the...

In the recent years electricity tariff deficits emerged in Spain, Portugal, Greece and in some other Member States. Tariff deficits are shortfalls of revenues in the electricity system, which arise when the tariffs for the regulated components of the retail electricity price are set below the...

Competition in professional services is, in some occasions, hindered by excessive regulation. This may constrain business dynamics (entry and exit of firms) and create inefficiencies and excessive rents. To improve market performance in those professional services generally regulated, several EU...

This paper provides a detailed description of the current version of the Ecofin Council approved production function (PF) methodology which is used for assessing both the productive capacity (i.e. potential output) and cyclical position (i.e. output gaps) of EU economies. Compared with the...

This paper presents an indicator of the fiscal stance that combines features of the bottom-up, narrative approach on the revenue side with a refined version of the top-down, traditional approach of the structural balance on the expenditure side. With these characteristics the indicator offers an...

This paper analyses the main features of the wage differences between permanent and fixed-term workers and what sources are driving these differences, including the role of labour market institutions. We analyse wage differences between permanent and fixed-term contracts across EU countries...