Convergence among regions is explicitly defined as a political aim of the European Union. Overall, NUTS3 regions have indeed shown a path of convergence since the year 2000, but there are huge differences among the regions. Many Eastern European countries as well as several regions in Spain and...

This study examines from a cross-national perspective the importance of inheritance as a source of private wealth accumulation. Multivariate econometric analyses of harmonized survey data obtained from 11 European countries reveal that inheriting households own considerably more wealth than...

Collectively agreed reductions of working hours phased out in Europe in the 1990s. During the last two decades, working time became more flexible and heterogeneous. Working hours of full-time employees in the EU hardly changed. The strong increase in part-time work was the outstanding...

This paper summarizes future research questions for each driver of change based on the outcomes of the WWWforEurope project and the derived policy recommendations. Firstly, a broad research question is suggested for each driver indicating the main focus of interest. In a second step, several...

We quantify the role of financial factors behind the sluggish post-crisis performance of European firms. We use a firm-bank-sovereign matched database to identify separate roles for firm and bank balance sheet weaknesses arising from changes in sovereign risk and aggregate demand conditions. We...

The People's Republic of China experienced a tremendous economic development within the last four decades. The increased economic power and political weight of China are challenging the USA and EU. Furthermore, the strategies used by China for its own development, e.g. broad-based industry...

Dieses Policy Paper untersucht für die Europäische Union, die Bundesebene und die Bundesländer die institutionelle und inhaltliche Ausgestaltung der Regulierungskontrolle und der Maßnahmen zum Bürokratieabbau. Die Analyse der administrativen Belastungen für die Unternehmen in Deutschland...