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This paper introduces a special section of Science and Public Policy on science in society in Europe. Based on extensive data collected for the Monitoring Policy and Research Activities on Science in Society in Europe (MASIS) project, contributions to this special section explore pertinent issues related to the location, role and responsibility of science across EU member states and associated countries. By developing analytical typologies and classifying countries, the collection of papers provides a novel and detailed picture of Europe. It reveals considerable variation regarding the interactions of science and society at the national level, and it offers a platform for international learning. The identification of patterns and trends concerning the place of science in society may also feed into emerging European discussions about 'responsible research and innovation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overeducation describes the situation whereby workers are located in jobs for which they are deemed overqualified. This paper examines patterns in overeducation between countries using a specifically designed panel data set constructed from the quarterly Labour Force Surveys of 28 EU countries over a 12- to 15-year period. It is not the case that overeducation has been rising rapidly over time in all countries, and where overeducation has grown, the trend has been very gradual. Furthermore, overeducation rates were found to be static or falling in approximately 50% of the 28 EU countries. The evidence points towards convergence in overeducation at a rate of 3.3% per annum. In terms of the determinants of overeducation we find evidence to support policies aimed at improving effective female participation, labour market flexibility and the practical aspects of educational provision as a means of reducing the incidence of overeducation within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As countries increasingly protect their domestic industries by government subsidies, specific subsidies-subsidies that target specific industries or firms-have received increasing international attention due to their negative externality in international trade. In this paper, I argue that variations in domestic institutional arrangements can explain the cross-national variation in subsidy specificity. First, I theorize that the size of specific subsidies has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the level of centralization of economic interests, while the size of general subsidies monotonically increases with the level of centralization of economic interests. Then, I expect the supply-side factors such as electoral institutions and government partisanship to interact with the effects of centralization in determining the amount of specific or general subsidies in a country. Using the state aid data set of the European Union between 1992 and 2004, I find that the amount of sectoral aid-state aid targeted at specific industries or firms-is larger in countries where labor and business interests are organized at the industry level than in countries with decentralized or highly centralized industrial relations. The size of state aid targeting a wide range of economic sectors increases as the centralization of labor and business interests increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies methodologies and strategies appropriate for the development of indicators of well-being at the level of subnational regions, thus contributing towards the incorporation of the subnational dimension into public policy making. Considerations in adapting and augmenting country-level indicators for application at the regional level are discussed. Special technical procedures involved in this process are described. These include consolidation of measures defined with reference to different poverty line thresholds in the income distribution, cumulation of data or measures over multiple survey waves and use of small area estimation methods. Empirical illustrations using comparable survey data from European Union countries are provided, to the extent possible with the available microdata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The huge increases in debt-GDP ratios following the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, which are unprecedented except in times of war, has focused attention on the viability of the fiscal positions of EU countries and the US, how to assess this and the likely future evolution of these positions. This paper proposes an indicator of the fiscal stance which computes the fiscal adjustment required to reach a specific debt-GDP targeted given the forecasts of future deficit and interest rates obtained from an unrestricted (recursively-estimated) VAR model. The index is easy to compute and can be decomposed to disclose the different contribution of revenue, expenditure, nominal yields, inflation and growth to the fiscal stance. For this reason it provides a transparent and detailed measure of the fiscal stance, particularly suitable for multi-country surveillance. As a result, the index improves on the tax-gap indicators widely used by governments and international agencies, and is far more informative than formal econometric tests of fiscal sustainability. The time series of the indicator for individual EU countries and the US show that their fiscal position has fluctuated considerably over the last 40 years, and has particularly deteriorated since 2007. The index predicts that the adjustment required to restore pre-crisis debt-GDP levels are higher for high debt countries like Greece, Italy and Portugal. They become more severe the shorter is the time horizon for the adjustment. As a large degree of uncertainty surrounds the assessment of the fiscal stance in the medium and long run, we argue that policy makers should inform their policy based on the worst case scenario predicted by the indicator. - Vito Polito and Michael Wickens [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore government preferences and cleavages in the bargaining process on the European Constitution, across the range of 25 EU member states. The study focuses on preferences concerning socioeconomic policymaking and explores whether divisions can be discerned between preferences held by actors according to locations on the left-right policy scale, actors in older as compared to newer EU states, net EU budget positions, domestic rates of support for European integration, and smaller as compared to larger states. The analysis also controls for possible external effects, such as recent domestic macroeconomic developments. Negotiations on the European Constitution are found to be determined less by general transnational left-right divisions, but cleavages according to the length of EU membership and the size of EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a three-region framework to examine the effects of European currency unification on EMU and US inflation rates. It considers ways in which increased participation in the EMU might influence inflation choices in Europe and the United States. It also considers how alternative monetary policies and parameter values might influence the extent of participation in the EMU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labour market status of many nonworking persons is at the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. Like the unemployed, they seek and are available for work; unlike them, their last search action was not recent enough to meet the International Labour Office definition of unemployment. In this paper we examine by nonparametric tests how the transition probabilities of these out-of-the-labour-force job seekers differ from those of the unemployed as well as the other nonparticipants. First, using data from the European Community Household Panel, we show that in most EU countries these job seekers constitute a distinct labour market state. Second, we rely on information available only in the Italian Labour Force Survey to derive a measure of search intensity that we use to break down the out-of-the-labour-force job seekers. On the basis of their transition probabilities, the most active are indistinguishable from the unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how the adoption of the euro as the common currency in Europe has affected firms’ investment rates. Using corporate data from the eleven countries that adopted the euro in January 1999, as well as from a control sample of five other European countries, our paper shows that (i) the euro has increased investments for firms from countries that previously had weak currencies, (ii) the euro has had a positive impact on financially constrained firms’ investments, and (iii) the euro has decreased investments for financially unconstrained firms from countries that previously had strong currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the use of an in-class simulation to model negotiations in the European Council. Simulations are an increasingly popular way to teach the complex processes of policymaking and negotiations in the European Union (EU) where institutional procedures are difficult to understand and where intergovernmental and supranational issues often conflict. Advocates of active learning promote simulations to get students more involved and to reach an increasingly diverse student body. The simulation presented here has three separate sessions, each covering a different issue and lasting for a week (two class days) each. Modeling the European Council allows students to experience the intergovernmental side of policy decisions in the European Union while at the same time learning about the issues facing EU policymakers. It is a useful tool for teaching about the EU presidency and a worthwhile exercise for studying the national aspects of European integration. Student surveys indicate that students process the information they gain by role-playing better than information they receive in the traditional classroom. A simulation of the European Council gives students a base for understanding issues of European integration and can serve as a springboard for further study of EU institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the relationship between household income and life‐style deprivation, and their combined impact on households' perceptions of economic strain. It takes as a point of departure findings from a number of European countries showing that the relationship between income and deprivation is weaker than widely assumed and that relative income poverty lines may perform poorly in terms of identifying the most deprived households. It proceeds to examine how far these conclusions about income and deprivation can be generalized to the countries included in the first wave of the European Community Household Panel. Results show that five distinct dimensions of deprivation emerge from an overall European analysis and that these are consistent across individual countries. While a good deal of similarity is observed in the income–deprivation relationship, countries differ in the strength of relationship between income and what is termed ‘current liferstyle deprivation’ with the relationship being generally weakest in the richer countries. The implications of these findings for the use of relative income poverty lines are developed. Extending this analysis to an assessment of how income and deprivation combine to influence perceptions of economic strain, we show that within‐nation reference group processes operating in a uniform manner across countries can account for the bulk of the variation in strain. Cross‐national differences can be accounted for by corresponding variation in income and deprivation levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we take a critical look at current European regional policies. First, we document the motivation for such policies, that is, the large income disparities across the regions of the EU15. Large disparities are certainly present. Second, we illustrate the various instruments adopted and discuss their underpinnings in established economic theories. Next, we look at available data, searching for three kinds of evidence: (1) if disparities are either growing or decreasing, we conclude they are neither; (2) which are the major factors explaining such disparities and, in particular, if they are the factors predicted by the economic models adopted by the Commission to justify current policies, we conclude this is most certainly not the case; (3) if there are clear signs that EU policies, as opposed to other social and economic factors, are actually reducing such disparities, we cannot find any clear sign of such desired impact. Our conclusion is that regional and structural policies serve mostly a redistributional purpose, motivated by the nature .of the political equilibria upon which the European Union is built. They have little relationship with fostering economic growth. This casts a serious doubt on their social value and, furthermore, strongly questions extending such policies to future members of the European Union. A successful EU enlargement, in our view, calls for an immediate and drastic revision of regional economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As migrant workers, EU-8 nationals enjoy a right to equal treatment with nationals in respect of their terms and conditions of employment. While some employers have tried to meet their legal obligations towards EU-8 nationals, others have denied them their employment rights under UK law. In this paper, we explore how EU-8 migrants make use of Employment Tribunals (ETs) to enforce their employment rights. How many cases do they bring before ETs, and what are they about? Are claims brought alone or with support, and if so, from whom? How are EU-8 workers treated once they are before a Tribunal and how successful are their claims? If there is evidence that EU-8 migrants are successfully bringing claims to enforce their employment rights, then fears about undercutting and exploitation of vulnerable workers are perhaps less serious than they would first appear. If they are not, then concerns about (mis)treatment are justified and prompt the further question as to how their rights could be better protected in practice, particularly given the introduction of fees for accessing ETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who do citizens blame for the recent European economic crisis? In this paper, we test theories about blame attribution with respect to the economic crisis. We argue that blame for the crisis is partially conditioned by partisan bias and framings of the crisis as being related to globalization. We test the argument with new survey data and a survey experiment from Spain. In the experiment, respondents receive different framings of the economic crisis which are endorsed by different political parties and non-partisan organizations. We obtain the following findings: (i) blame for who is responsible for the economic crisis is greatly affected by partisanship; (ii) making globalization as a cause of the crisis salient exonerates the government of blame, but only for co-partisans of the government; and (iii) citizens are willing to blame other globalization-related factors for the crisis, in particular, European governments and blame the domestic government less. The results expand our understanding of public opinion dynamics during major economic recessions and also suggest conditions under which 'scapegoating' globalization can occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of whether, in addition to the well-known "mother-hood penalty" in employment, there is also an "education penalty" for mothers with lower levels of education. It also asks whether work-family conciliating poli-cies play a role in determining the characteristics and the extent of these different penalties in EU countries. The authors find that the selection of women in employ-ment by education is largely unaffected by motherhood. Only in a few countries is there an additional penalty for low-educated mothers. The most effective policy to enable both mothers in general and low-educated mothers to remain in paid work appears to be generous provision of childcare services for children under three years. Contrary to the authors' own hypothesis and the findings presented in most of the relevant literature, there is no evidence that "too long" parental leave has a negative effect on employment, whereas the data confirm that "too short" leave may be disin-centivizing. Following the application of various controls, the authors conclude that policies are part of a more complex institutional and cultural framework of options and constraints that shape the labour-market participation of mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though it has produced a high-quality body of research, the study of substance use has remained highly individualized in its focus. This paper adds further sociological understanding to that research. Using hierarchical models, the following explores how institutional and criminological theories can be incorporated into substance use research by examining cigarette smoking at 3 levels of variation. Two main findings emerge. First, national legal context plays a role in understanding individual-level probabilities of substance use, even after controlling for individual and local characteristics. For example, lower probabilities of smoking occur where there are smoking bans and minimum purchase ages. Second, the effects of local context, such as unemployment and the percentage of young people, exhibit significant effects on individual-level cigarette use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the completion of the single European market and the full liberalization of capital markets two separate trilemmas emerged in the early 1990s: a monetary trilemma between free capital movements, fixed exchange rates, and national monetary autonomy; and a financial trilemma between free capital movements, financial stability, and national financial supervision autonomy. The paper argues that although these two trilemmas stem from the same root cause, financial integration, the financial trilemma is particularly acute for countries that have chosen to resolve the monetary trilemma by entering into a monetary union. The lesson from the recent crisis is that eurozone countries need to replace their national financial supervision institutions by supranational institutions capable of managing and resolving financial crises. This will require pooling together some of their fiscal sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper has contributed to confirming the link between education and health in developed countries. The analysis is based on 11 European Union countries. We estimate country-specific health functions, where the dependent variable is self-reported health status and the education attainment is one of the main inputs. All eight waves (1994–2001) of the European Community Household Panel are deployed. A random effects ordered probit is estimated in order to control, to a given extent, for unobserved heterogeneity. Explanatory variables are both time invariant (education attainment and gender) and time varying (gross wages, hours of work, age and living alone). Results confirm the positive impact of secondary education on health in most cases and tertiary education in all cases, even after controlling for other inputs in the health function and taking unobserved heterogeneity into account. Secondary education has an impact on health in all countries in the sample except for The Netherlands and UK. The effect does not differ between secondary and tertiary education in France, Ireland and Greece. The correlation between education and health is interpreted in different but complementary ways by diverse approaches and we may not disentangle the precise mechanism that connects health with education from our results. Anyway, it seems clear that better coordination is needed between education and health policies to effectively improve health literacy. Other relevant results from our study are that women register poorer health than men, age contributes to worsening health status and wages contribute positively to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The questions asked in the paper are whether and to what extent the employment situation among recent third-country immigrants differs across European Union countries and how it is related to these countries' labor market characteristics. The European Labor Force Survey data for the 1990s are used to disentangle the roles that the individual characteristics of immigrants, on the one hand, and the structural features of the receiving societies, on the other, play in the process of immigrants' labor market integration. The results of multilevel regression analyses confirm that in receiving countries with stronger demand for low-skilled labor, unprivileged immigrants are less disadvantaged at employment entry. Among men immigrants' employment disadvantages are found to be lower in liberal welfare states marked by their flexible labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quinquennial Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference represents a highly important event from the perspective of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Though not a party to the treaty itself, the EU has made a consistent effort since the 1990s to coordinate the positions of its member states and achieve higher visibility in the NPT review process. The aim of this article is to examine the role of the EU in the 2015 NPT Review Conference deliberations. Drawing on on-site observations, statements and in-depth research interviews, it argues that the recent institutional changes notwithstanding, the influence of the EU as a distinct actor in the NPT context remains very limited, and the EU's common position is in bigger disarray than ever before. This year's Review Conference demonstrated the widening rift between the member states, in particular in the area of nuclear disarmament and the related issues. The inability to maintain a coherent common position limits the EU 'actorness' and impedes its striving for relevance in the NPT forums. The dynamics outlined in this article further highlight the limits of the EU CFSP in security matters in which the national positions of individual member states are as divergent as in the case of nuclear disarmament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit two Norwegian parental leave reforms to investigate their effects on adolescents' household work. The main reform increased the parental leave time by 7 weeks, 4 of which were reserved for the father, while the second reform raised only the general parental leave time by 3 weeks. We find a robust and substantial effect of the main reform implying that adolescent girls born immediately after the reform are less likely to do household work. By analyzing the two parental leave reforms together, we show that the father quota drives the results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As countries increasingly protect their domestic industries by government subsidies, specific subsidies-subsidies that target specific industries or firms-have received increasing international attention due to their negative externality in international trade. In this paper, I argue that variations in domestic institutional arrangements can explain the cross-national variation in subsidy specificity. First, I theorize that the size of specific subsidies has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the level of centralization of economic interests, while the size of general subsidies monotonically increases with the level of centralization of economic interests. Then, I expect the supply-side factors such as electoral institutions and government partisanship to interact with the effects of centralization in determining the amount of specific or general subsidies in a country. Using the state aid data set of the European Union between 1992 and 2004, I find that the amount of sectoral aid-state aid targeted at specific industries or firms-is larger in countries where labor and business interests are organized at the industry level than in countries with decentralized or highly centralized industrial relations. The size of state aid targeting a wide range of economic sectors increases as the centralization of labor and business interests increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currency mismatch is a vehicle that exposes the economy to systemic risk, but it is also an engine of growth. We analyse this dual role at the macro and the micro levels. At the aggregate level, we construct a new measure of currency mismatch in the banking sector that controls for bank lending to unhedged borrowers - that is, those with no foreign currency income. Using our measure, we find that across emerging European economies, increases in currency mismatch are associated with higher growth in tranquil times, but also with more severe crises. On net, after taking into account the crisis period, we find a positive link between currency mismatch and growth. These results are also confirmed for a broader sample of emerging economies. In our firm-level analysis, we find that in emerging Europe, currency mismatch relaxes borrowing constraints, reduces interest rates and enhances growth across sets of firms that arguably are the most credit constrained - that is, small firms in non-tradables sectors - but not across large firms. An advantage of our approach is that it considers both listed and non-listed firms, and so we are able to effectively capture the effects of currency mismatch across the entire economy, not just the financially privileged stock market listed firms. - Romain Ranciere, Aaron Tornell and Athanasios Vamvakidis [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have seen far-reaching changes in the structure of the international monetary system. Europe moved from the European Monetary System to the euro. China adopted a dollar peg and then moved to a basket, band and crawl in 2005. Emerging markets passed through a series of crises, leading some to adopt regimes of greater exchange rate flexibility and others to rethink the pace of capital account liberalization. Interpreting these developments is no easy task: some observers conclude that recent trends are confirmation of the "bipolar view" that intermediate exchange rate arrangements are disappearing, while members of the "fear of floating school" conclude precisely the opposite. We show that the two views can be reconciled if one distinguishes countries by their stage of economic and financial development. Among the advanced countries, intermediate regimes have essentially disappeared; this supports the bipolar view for the group of countries for which it was first developed. Within this subgroup, the dominant movement has been toward hard pegs, reflecting monetary unification in Europe. While emerging markets have also seen a decline in the prevalence of intermediate arrangements, these regimes still account for more than a third of the relevant subsample. Here the majority of the evacuees have moved to floats rather than fixes, reflecting the absence of EMU-like arrangements in other parts of the world. Among developing countries, the prevalence of intermediate regimes has again declined, but less dramatically. Where these regimes accounted for two-thirds of the developing country subsample in 1990, they account for a bit more than half of that subsample today. As with emerging markets, the majority of those abandoning the middle have moved to floats rather than hard pegs. The gradual nature of these trends does not suggest that intermediate regimes will disappear outside the advanced countries anytime soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been argued that monetary union will make little difference to trade between European Union countries since, apart from the crisis years of 1992-93, they have enjoyed considerable stability of their bilateral exchange rates against one another. In any case, economists have found it notoriously difficult to discover any reliable empirical linkage between exchange rate volatility and the magnitude of trade flows. Yet many businesses seem to be reacting to EMU by embarking on mergers and other forms of organizational change that suggest the effects of EMU may be more significant than any reduction in exchange rate volatility would imply. In part, this may be because a commitment to monetary union is itself a signal that further measures to promote integration are likely from cross-country differences in trade relations and monetary institutions. Since cross-country differences are larger than changes over time, and since the sample of countries is large, this strategy offers some prospect of discovering effects previously obscure in time-series analysis of slowly changing countries.

We have examined the fiscal consolidation episodes in a group of OECD countries from 2009 to 2014. The range of the estimated short-term fiscal multiplier runs from 1.2 to 2.0, larger than those obtained in more 'normal times', implying that the contractionary effect has been larger in depressed environments. Nevertheless, we also found that revenue measures have a higher and more persistent real impact than expenditure measures, which is more consistent with the influence of current consolidations on the expectations about the future path of fiscal policies (the expectations channel). This result suggests that expenditure cuts are less harmful for the economy than tax hikes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally assumed that life courses in European societies have become less orderly and more destandardized in recent decades. Focusing on the family sphere, the article examines to what degree patterns of destandardization are stratified by educational attainment across seven European countries. Using data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) and the National Educational Panel Survey (NEPS) (n=70,228 respondents), the article adds to the methodological discussion of destandardization by implementing both abstract analyses of life course dissimilarity, which focus on the 'timing' of events; and specific analyses of common episode orders, which relate to the 'order' of events. While European countries differ considerably with respect to dominant life course patterns in early adulthood, a consistent finding is that destandardization is more pronounced among individuals with lower than with higher levels of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how news messages carrying parts of the populist ideology contribute to a polarization of public opinion about populism. It combines a content analysis of news coverage on two policy areas ( N = 7,119 stories) with a two-wave panel survey ( N = 2,338) in four European metropolitan regions (Berlin, Paris, London, and Zurich). In three regions, unopposed media messages with a populist stance have a conditional effect on populist attitudes that depends on prior convictions. A higher dose of exposure to populist news coverage enhances both prior agreement and disagreement with populism. Although the observed interaction patterns vary between regions, the general picture suggests that populist messages in the news foster polarization between public support and disapproval of populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Conflicting evidence has been reported on smoking behavior among adults during times of economic downturn. No study has yet investigated young people's smoking and inequalities in smoking during economic recessions. This study examines the association between country-level youth unemployment due to the economic recession and adolescent smoking and smoking inequalities in Europe.Methods: The WHO collaborative "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children" study in 2009/2010 included 15-year-old adolescents from 24 European countries (N = 43 093). Socioeconomic position (SEP) was measured by the Family Affluence Scale. Logistic multilevel models were conducted. The absolute rate of youth unemployment in 2010 (during the recession) and the relative change rate in youth unemployment (2005/2006-2009/2010) were regressed on smoking and SEP inequalities in smoking in 2010, respectively.Results: Youth unemployment rates were not significantly associated with overall smoking in adolescents. A higher absolute youth unemployment rate in 2010 related to lower likelihoods of smoking among middle (OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.98-0.99) and low affluent adolescents (OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.98-0.99) compared to high affluent adolescents. In contrast, an increase in youth unemployment (2005/2006-2009/2010) was not associated with overall likelihoods of smoking and inequalities in smoking.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that an increase in youth unemployment was not related to smoking and smoking inequalities. However, higher absolute levels of youth unemployment are related to lower likelihoods of smoking in lower SEP adolescents. Thus, smoking among vulnerable groups is more linked to the overall insecure circumstances and the affordability of cigarettes rather than to the economic recession itself.Implications: Economic recessions have often led to increases in adult and youth unemployment rates. Conflicting evidence has been reported on smoking behavior among adults during times of economic downturn. This study examines for the first time the impact of the economic recession on young people's smoking and socioeconomic inequalities in smoking. Findings highlight that rather than an increase in youth unemployment, the overall country-level youth unemployment rate is related to young people's tobacco use and particularly to lower odds in smoking among less affluent adolescents across Europe, a finding which is likely to be linked to the affordability of tobacco use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and costly debt restructurings in Greece and Argentina, the sovereign debt restructuring regime (SDRR) has been reformed in a number of ways. Taken together, these reforms have had a mixed impact in comparison to existing governance arrangements put in place during the early 2000s: changes to IMF lending rules have weakened the regime, reforms to sovereign bond contracts have strengthened it, and a UN-centred initiative to construct a new multilateral debt restructuring framework has had little impact in either direction. The pattern of post-2008 change reveals that reforms focusing on pre-defined rules to trigger debt restructuring (the IMF lending reforms) areless likely to succeed than those focused on the process of restructuring once the decision to restructure has been taken (contract reforms). It also shows that efforts to build comprehensive, multilateral legal frameworks for debt restructuring (the initial goal of the UN initiative) face enormous obstacles. At a more theoretical level, the post-2008 experience highlights the enduring power of the United States and leading European states to shape outcomes in this sector, as well as the need to embrace eclectic theoretical frameworks in analysing the complicated politics of SDRR reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses competition law developments in the European Union's automotive industry, with mentions of the car maker Volkswagen's emissions scandal, targeting of car parts suppliers, truck makers and emissions regulations.

As often pointed out in the literature on the European debt crisis, the policy programme of austerity and internal devaluation imposed on countries in the Eurozone's periphery exhibits a lack of democratic legitimacy. This article analyses the consequences these developments have for democratic support at both the European and national levels. We show that through the policies of economic adjustment, a majority of citizens in crisis countries has become 'detached' from their democratic political system. By cutting loose the Eurozone's periphery from the rest of Europe in terms of democratic legitimacy, the Euro has divided the union, instead of uniting it as foreseen by its architects. Our results are based on aggregated Eurobarometer surveys conducted in 28 European Union (EU) member states between 2002 and 2014. We employ quantitative time-series cross-sectional regression analyses. Moreover, we estimate the causal effect of economic adjustment in a comparative case study of four cases using the synthetic control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accommodation of Muslim minorities in European countries has sparked controversies over the extension of religious rights. Previous research has mostly studied public institutions and debates. But which attitudes toward religious rights do Europeans hold and how can we explain these attitudes? To approach this question, we draw on the novel EURISLAM data set, which allows us for the first time to investigate attitudes of both Muslim minorities and Christian natives in six Western European countries. To explain attitudes, we test the explanatory power of religiosity at the individual level and state-church regimes in both destination and origin countries at the macro level. Overall, Muslims, especially religious Muslims, are more supportive of religious rights than natives. However, we also find that religious natives approve to a greater extent of out-group rights than non-religious natives. We argue that these findings have to be interpreted in light of asymmetric power relationships: Muslim minorities can hardly deny the rights of Christians, as this would undermine their own claims. Similarly, religious natives increasingly constitute a minority in secular societies and may therefore see Muslims as allies in order to strengthen the position of religion in Western Europe. The higher approval of religious individuals challenges the theory on out-group threat, which would lead us to expect that religious individuals are more reluctant to embrace out-group rights. Finally, state-church regimes in the destination countries play a minor role, while the degree of religiosity in the origin countries has an important impact on individual attitudes toward religious rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their different ways, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Fed combine expertise with representation: key members of these institutions along with their staff are appointed on the basis of their expertise and professional qualifications whereas each organization is conceived, in part, so as to represent the constituent nation-states or regions that make up their currency zones. In this article, the tension between expertise and representation apparent in the constitution of each institution is explored with emphasis on the ways in which geography is represented in monetary policy decision-making. The formal representation of nation-states in the ECB, their voting rights, and the significance or otherwise of large Eurozone countries is also considered. Being an analytical assessment of the effectiveness of the ECB compared with the Fed, the effectiveness of each institution is assessed in the light of financial risk and uncertainty and the complex interplay between monetary policy-making and fiscal federalism. Implications are drawn as regards the management of the Euro crisis has been managed, and the ways in which the welfare of peripheral countries have been discounted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to examine the issue of 'lobbying' in the EU legislative process, using an interdisciplinary analysis of the development of copyright laws as a way of explaining why and how some lobbyists are more successful than others in having their preferences taken into account in legislation. As this article will demonstrate, the keys to successful lobbying in this field are information exchange, the ability to frame issues at an early stage in the legislative process (agenda setting) and the political salience of an issue. By assessing not only where legislative initiatives in copyright reform have been successful, such as the passing of the Information Society, Enforcement and Term Extension Directives, but also where legislative initiatives fail, as in the case of ACTA, it will be demonstrated that legislative success is not a simple case of 'big business getting what it wants', but of varying levels of political salience. Where the salience of an issue is low and voters consider that issue comparatively unimportant to other issues, industry representatives are able to effectively frame legislative outcomes. Where salience is high, and an issue important to voters, this ability is substantially reduced. By approaching copyright law development in this way, it is possible to reconceptualise the role of lobbying in the EU legislative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future European jurisdiction for patent infringement lawsuits based on European patents—initially optionally—and based on the unitary patent will change the nature of the court structure in Europe. The Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (the ‘UPC Agreement’), which will create the new court, had to be harmonized with the Brussels I Regulation which also regulates European jurisdiction for patent infringement lawsuits. Regulation 1215/2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters had already been significantly amended. The revision of the recast Brussels I Regulation, which took place through Regulation 542/2014 on the amendment of Regulation 1215/2012, took effect on 30 May 2014. From 10 January 2015 onwards the core rules on jurisdiction set out in those Regulations apply to patent disputes. The time has definitely come to consider the future of European patent infringement proceedings. The revised Brussels I Regulation creates a law that is unusual in Europe and in relation to foreign parties, at least in the form of statutory provisions. In relations with Switzerland, the Lugano Convention will have to be adjusted. Equal treatment of the countries party to the Lugano Convention with Member States of the EU is one of the demands made in the present article. This article also seeks to introduce readers to the imminent changes in the law and to point out problems. The lively more recent case law of the CJEU concerning cross-border infringements will not be discussed for reasons of length. However, it must be incorporated into the new scheme of things. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A truly democratic European Union seems to have become the graal of European politics, the project's redemptive promise and unreachable horizon. Much has been written about the gap between promise and performance and about the obstacles to EU democratization. Here, we suggest that one way to apprehend the 'democratic deficit' debate as it has evolved in the wake of the euro crisis is to think of it as a 'democratic trilemma'. We argue that European legitimacy requires responses in different realms: first, an acknowledgement of Europe's 'transnational democratic interdependence'; second, an anchoring of the functionalist European superstructure in 'national democratic legitimacy'; and third, a grounding of both European and national power in 'local democratic legitimacy'. While the very notion of trilemma points to the tensions that arise in trying to satisfy these requisites simultaneously, we nevertheless need to look for ways of alleviating the trilemma rather than coming up with democratic magic bullets in a single one of these realms. While our main goal is to reframe and open up the debate around the key concepts of empowerment, mutual recognition and flexibility, we also provide examples of what this may mean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State aid regime for the financial sector remains in place but the review of individual restructuring plans seems to be coming to a close.In relation to Articles 101 and 102 TFEU the Commission is still focused on payment systems and has been pursuing banks regarding financial benchmarks.As regards merger control, the scene was dominated by the in-depth investigation into a mobile wallets JV.The Commission further dealt with cases at the intersection of State aid and merger control and monitored a number of stock exchange developments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In May 2012, the European Competition Network published its “Report on competition law enforcement and market monitoring activities by European competition authorities in the food sector”.The present article provides an overview of the most recent antitrust enforcement measures that have been taken in the food sector by regulators, both on the EU level and in Germany.Given a particularly strong enforcement practice by National Competition Authorities (NCAs) across Europe and, as a seminal example, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) in Germany, the article then goes on to examine the necessity and the potential pros and cons of an EU-wide sector inquiry in the food sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have carried out a cross-sectional analysis of the information on research in the science in society (SIS) field collected by the Monitoring Policy and Research Activities on Science in Society in Europe (MASIS) project. Based on the reports set up by national correspondents in the different countries, we were able to provide a picture of the type of research being carried out in Europe under national funding. It has provided a new picture, bringing in countries that do not often appear in the mainstream literature. A typology of countries has been set up according to their activity in the area and a description of research topics is provided. A number of integrated projects, sometimes cross-national, that examine a topic from different angles appear to be particularly promising. Most available information concerned dedicated SiS research projects. Very little information was available on SiS research 'embedded' in projects centred on other 'hard-science' topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article argues that over the past years, in Europe, some instruments and policies dealing with gender equality both at the national and supra-national level reflect a move from a narrow antidiscrimination frame to a broader model that tackles the under-participation and disempowerment of women in public and private life as a deficiency of democracy and a problem of citizenship. By analyzing specific parity measures that have been adopted recently in some European Member States, such as electoral and corporate board gender quotas in publically held companies, the Article posits that a new understanding between parity democracy, sex equality and antidiscrimination law is evolving and explains why a combination of legal, historical, cultural, ideological and political factors make it unlikely that a similar development will take place in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the state’s role in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. Among the countries, Poland is perceived as the leader because it was the first economy to emerge from the decline following the transition, as well the only EU member state to survive the crisis without a recession. This success is often attributed to the high quality of government. However, we show that this popular perception is false and that state malfunctions on numerous fronts may soon impede Polish growth prospects. In Poland, the only bright spot is the quality of the financial supervision, which should serve as a role model for other countries. We attribute the malfunctions to the EU accession period that resulted in an unchecked growth of the government and contributed to the weakening of political and legal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using panel data for 12 EU countries, we analyze the relationship between self-reported housing satisfaction and residential mobility. Our results indicate the existence of a positive link between the two variables and that housing satisfaction exerts a mediating effect between residential characteristics and dwellers' mobility propensities. Some interesting cross-country differences regarding the effect of other variables on mobility are also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the significance of the landmark decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Demir and Baykara v Turkey, which reversed earlier jurisprudence to hold (i) that the right to collective bargaining is ‘an essential element’ of the right to freedom of association in Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and (ii) embedded the jurisprudence of the International Labour Organisation and the European Social Charter into that right. The authors examine the ECtHR's extension of the Demir and Baykara principle to include collective action and review the Strasbourg court's jurisprudence generally on the right to strike. Full consideration is given to (i) the treatment of these developments by the English courts in Metrobus Ltd v UNITE the Union and EDF Energy Powerlink Ltd v RMT and (ii) their wider implications not only for British but also for European Union (EU) labour law. The authors consider the apparent collision between the trade union rights established under the ECHR in Demir and Baykara and the trade union liabilities introduced under EU law by the Viking and Laval judgments of the European Court of Justice, taking into account some significant issues that arose in the BALPA v British Airways litigation in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present estimates of the private and fiscal returns to schooling in 14 European Union countries. Estimates of the private returns to post-compulsory formal education take into account the effects of schooling on wages and employment probabilities and allow for academic failure rates, the direct and opportunity costs of education, and the impact of personal taxes, social security contributions, and unemployment and pension benefits on lifetime earnings. Estimates of fiscal returns capture the long-term effects of a marginal increase in average educational attainment on public finances under conditions that approximate general equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a range of initiatives over the last 10 years to enhance the use of science in policy-making by the European Commission and by governments in individual European Union member states, concerns remain that the substantial investments made in research on environmental issues are not as effective as they could be in supporting an evidence-informed approach to environmental policy-making and regulation. The empirical study summarised in this article set out to establish whether shortcomings in the planning, management and communication of research commissioned by governmental ministries and agencies are contributing to this ineffectiveness, and to identify how problem areas can be addressed. Specific issues addressed are the planning and management of research, communication of research results to end-users, the roles of interpreters and intermediaries, engagement with stakeholders, and the evaluation of research uptake and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new interdisciplinary perspective in international relations (IR). It suggests that contributions from perception studies can help us reconceptualize some elements of IR. Specifically, the article takes up the concept of Gestalt and applies it to European integration. The Gestalt laws and phenomena demonstrated by European integration can be identified in other examples of regional integration, as well as in various international organizations, or alliances. They also provide insight into other features of IR, such as the international order. The Gestalt approach per se may contribute to the development of a psychological constructivist theory of IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a survey of the literature on European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in particular works that deal with the question why EMU happened and, based on this literature, what one might be able to conclude about its sustainability. It reviews the literature by dividing up the analyses into four categories: those that explain EMU at the global and at the European Union (EU) levels of analysis, explanations at the national level, and explanations at the domestic level of analysis. The review suggests that EMU was a particular European response to global developments, which was possible because of existing EU institutions. EMU was causally motivated by a Franco-German deal, balancing national interests. Domestic motives reflect essentially opportunistic motives, and thus, cannot explain EMU. In our judgment the review suggests that Europe’s single currency will remain sustainable as long as the Franco-German political deal sticks, the belief in the “sound money” idea remains hegemonic in Europe, and the losers from EMU are underrepresented in national and EU institutions. While opportunistic domestic motives cannot explain embarking on a long-term project, they can definitely be sufficient to derail such a project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Community Environment Policy and the need for integration of environmental requirements in sectoral policies raise markedly different issues in the different contexts in which they need to be applied. The application of the precautionary principle to the `prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources' contrasts with its application in pollution control contexts. The need for precaution in the management of fisheries resources is considered against the backdrop of the reformed (post-2002) Community Common Fisheries Policy. This recognises the need to adopt a precautionary approach and, progressively, an ecosystem-based approach. These innovations are assessed through their application to catch limits under stock recovery plans. The interpretation of `precaution' that has been adopted is contrasted with stricter alternatives. Given the potential costs of precaution, there may be good reasons for its progressive application, but, if the reforms fail to achieve their ecological objectives, a stronger version of precaution will be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Member States of the European Union, participation in this supranational organization has increased the number of difficulties in the international arena. Occasionally, the expanding legislative activity of the European institutions reaches out beyond the borders of the European legal system and incidentally affects the EU Member States' autonomous relations with third parties. Consequently the EU and its members, often with success, seek third parties' consent to exceptional treatment. Because of their number and significance, such derogations have inspired this article to inquire into their expansion and legal status under international law. Even though the EU-related exceptions have not created an international customary rule, the article observes that European integration shapes international rules in diverse fields and adjusts them to its needs. Since European integration is designed to administer and regulate an increasing number of issues, the autonomous international obligations of the EU Member States may become an obstacle. Because the European Union is likely to continue using special treatment in the future, it is important to assess how far the supranational exception can go in order to accommodate all interests at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]