Using a variety of economic models, the Commission services have examined the impact of several reforms forming part of the Growth and Jobs Strategy (GJS). Overall, the results show that past reforms have delivered significant benefits, and that further reforms in key areas could generate...

This paper analyses how adjustment dynamics, in an environment with some degree of price and wage rigidity, may create and strengthen asymmetric developments in a monetary union. It presents a simple illustrative model of adjustment dynamics that reproduces quite nicely actual developments in...

This paper describes the endogenous growth version of the QUEST III model and uses it to analyse the macroeconomic impact of various structural reform measures. This paper describes a micro-founded DSGE model with endogenous growth that is used to analyse the macroeconomic impact of structural...

This paper analyses the effect of labour taxes on Euro area unemployment. Empirical estimates obtained so far can be criticised as being spurious because the regressions generally lack non-measurable variables constituting the reservation wage that can possibly be non stationary. Here we...

This paper uses a two-country-three-sector DSGE model to analyse adjustment in the Euro area. A particular distinction is made between tradeables and non tradeables and non tradeables are further disaggregated into housing and services. The experience of six countries which have shown strong...

This paper uses the EU KLEMS industry growth accounting database to explore the determinants of the EU-US total factor productivity (TFP) growth gap which started to emerge in the mid-1990's.

This paper uses an estimated DSGE model for the euro area to study the effects of fiscal stabilisation policies. There are at least two features of the euro area economy which makes this analysis interesting. First, there are nominal rigidities in goods and labour markets, and there are...

This paper considers the potential impact of a shift in official foreign reserves from dollars to euros using a global DSGE model. This paper uses QUEST III, a multi-region global DSGE model, to study the macroeconomic effects of a gradual equalization of official foreign reserves between...

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...

This paper compares the boom-bust cycle in Finland and Sweden 1984-1995 with the average boom-bust pattern in industrialized countries as calculated from an international sample for the period 1970-2002. Two clear conclusions emerge. First, the Finnish-Swedish experience is much more volatile...