As the EU economies and societies become increasingly integrated, and as labour market behaviour patterns converge across borders, the EU strives to develop a substantially common social identity. To this end, it seeks to promote the development of a sustainable institutional framework which...

The economic performance of European countries was in general disappointing in the nineties. However, country difference increased, as it was that in some European countries economic growth and productivity accelerated or could match US rates. This paper uses a broad set of performance...

This paper sets up a model of private consumption for selected EU countries with special emphasis on the consumption categories heating and transport. Sustainable consumption patterns require a "decoupling" of energy or materials use from satisfaction of consumers' needs and demands. Starting...

Since its inception in 1995, more than 312 disputes have been raised under the WTO Dispute Settlement System. Despite the obvious success of this system, several shortcomings call for a revision under the auspices of the Doha Development Round. With a computable general equilibrium model we...

This paper uses a data set covering 9 EU15 member states and 7 candidate countries and new member states to compare inter-regional migration patterns in the 1990s. We find that migration is lower in candidate countries and new member states than in EU15 member states. Also in contrast to the...

Subsidies linked to production have been classified to be environmentally harmful by OECD. A core element of the EU 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is to decouple income support from production. This paper estimates the environmental consequences of this policy reform. An...

The obvious difference in the economic performance of countries has led to the question why some countries are so much wealthier than others, and whether the size, the structure, and the organisation of the public sector contribute to cross-country income and growth gaps. Public sector...

We estimate a linear approximation of the market potential function derived in geography and trade models. Using a spatial econometric estimation approach, border effects can be identified by a differential impact of neighboring regions' purchasing power, depending on whether two regions are...