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Examines the impact of factor input prices, output market size and agglomeration effects on the choice of location for investment projects in Europe's paper industry. Wastepaper recovery and utilization rate; Forest resources and wastepaper recovery distribution.

Focuses on the analysis of the location of investments in theEuropean pulp and paper industry. Impact of raw material prices;Importance of the agglomeration coefficient indicated the power ofsunk costs; Comparison of the economic significance of changes inthe costs of input factors with changes in the market size.

ntroduction: Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products are a type of therapies that, in some cases, hold great potential for patients without an effective current therapeutic approach but they also present multiple challenges to payers. While there are many theoretical papers on pricing and reimbursement (P&R) options, original empirical research is very scarce. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive international review of regulatory and P&R decisions taken for all ATMPs with centralized European marketing authorization in March 2022. Methods: A survey was distributed in July 2022 to representatives of 46 countries. Results: Responses were received from 20 countries out of 46 (43.5%). 14 countries reimbursed at least one ATMP. Six countries in this survey reimbursed no ATMPs. Conclusion: Access to ATMPs is uneven across the countries included in this study. This arises from regulatory differences, commercial decisions by marketing authorization holders, and the divergent assessment processes and criteria applied by payers. Moving towards greater equality of access will require cooperation between countries and stakeholders, for example, through the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Access to Novel Medicines Platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its potential, the application of dynamic pricing (DP) remains the exception rather than the rule in car parks across Europe. This paper conceptualizes DP as a practice and leverages mechanisms of practice diffusion and organizational implementation to explain its slow diffusion. Among European car park operators the lack of technical and cultural fit of DP is identified as one of the main reasons for the slow diffusion process. It appears that more time is needed for an acceleration of the diffusion process as data management improves and prevalence of increasing digital solutions in a rather analogue industry become more accepted. As parking customers will eventually become more susceptible to digital solutions, more market participants are likely to adopt DP as the driving pricing scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of sectoral reallocations in the divergence of productivity in Europe, based on a database for 33 sectors and 14 countries between 1995 and 2015. Using the contribution of sectoral productivity growth to Total Factor Productivity (TFP) dynamics at the country level, we highlight that variations in the relative size of sectors—less productive sectors growing relatively to more productive ones—have been at the origin of variable productivity losses in main European countries. Parallel to this divergence, European countries experienced heterogeneous real estate price dynamics, which took the form, in some economies, of massive boom-bust cycles. We investigate real estate shocks as a potential source of sectoral reallocations through a collateral mechanism. These shocks turn out to be a strong driver of productivity divergence between European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a court case which deals with the effect of the annulment of a decision by the Court of Justice and the scope of Article 233, which requires the institution to comply with the judgment of the court. The decision arises from the ruling which found price concertation in the wood pulp market and imposed fines on producers. According to the court, the matter to be decided by the Community courts in an annulment action can relate only to those aspects of the contested decision which concern the addressee who has applied for an annulment.

Describes a letter signed by European university libraries which asked science-journal publishers how they plan to keep prices affordable. Details about the letter; Response from publishers; Views of Derk Haank of Elsevier Science; Lack of market forces in the research publications industry; View that scientists need to change their attitudes towards publishing.

Wild mushroom foraging has a long tradition, especially in the region of Central Europe. Wild mushrooms are a valuable food resource, as they provide nutritional benefits to the European population. They offer a relatively high content of protein and are traditionally used in many European cuisines as a substitute for meat. This is particularly true in times of crisis, such as wars and pandemics. The study presented in this paper shows that wild mushrooms can substitute around 0.2 percent of daily protein intake and contribute around 3% to the agricultural output of the Czech economy, which was selected as a representative for Central Europe. The calculated real price of wild mushrooms indicates their increasing popularity as a source of food protein in Central Europe, while their price seems to be independent of the quantity supplied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent surge in energy prices in Europe and their high volatility, have a very large impact on its economy. Policymakers have sought to counteract the impacts of the unprecedented energy price shock with a plethora of measures albeit with limited success. This paper proposes a dynamic, flexible system of energy price regulation at the retail level. The mechanism is simple, automatic and has a number of parameters that can be adjusted to fine tune its execution. It is shown how the mechanism leads to toppling of energy prices and reduces their volatility. At the same time, it does not prevent energy prices to absorb long-run fundamental/ market-conform price trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the European Union (EU)'s current goal of making its continent the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the EU will need to set a path for new policies in the areas of Europe's economy, energy consumption, and agriculture. Thus, this paper analyzes the marginal impact of energy price and economic freedom on Europe's CO2 emissions grounded on the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology ecology (STIRPAT) model together with the spatial econometric models. The results indicate the existence of spatial spillover effect of CO2 emissions among some countries in Europe. The Hausman test was also performed to select the best model between the random effects and the fixed effects. The findings suggest that increasing both economic freedom and energy price in a local country turns to reduce the country's own CO2 emissions and also reduces the emissions of its adjacent countries. Comparing the direct effect of economic freedom and energy price to that of the SDM fixed effect, a feedback of 12.77% and 23.53% of the direct effect was observed, respectively. The results also indicated that the turning point of economic freedom and economic growth was 6.714 and thus 9.083. Overall, the study spotlighted some policy suggestions for the energy market for the European commission in reducing the emissions of CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effects of carbon pricing on inflation dynamics. We construct a sample of carbon taxes implemented in Europe and Canada over three decades and estimate the response of inflation and price components to carbon pricing. Our empirical results suggest that carbon taxes did not significantly increase inflation, with dynamic effects estimated around zero in most specifications. Instead we find support for relative price changes, increasing the cost of energy but leaving the price of other goods and services unaffected. This is consistent with previous findings on the limited aggregate economic costs of carbon taxes. Based on the cross-section of taxes in Europe, we provide suggestive evidence that the response of inflation was especially muted in countries with revenue-neutral carbon taxes and autonomous central banks that can accommodate potential inflationary pressure associated with carbon pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study is to examine dynamic dependence and proof of contagion during the Covid-2019 pandemic. The empirical data are daily prices from six European indexes. The FTSE, DAX and CAC indexes represent the largest and most developed stock markets in Europe, while the Austrian ATX index represents small developed markets. The WIG and BUX indexes represent emerging European markets. This empirical study, based on the Dynamic Conditional Correlation model, which is applied to different pairs of indexes, aims to convince the reader of the increase in the correlation between the time of the pandemic (after 30 December 2019) and the period before the beginning of the pandemic. For all pairs, the mean value of the conditional correlations in the pre-Covid period was statistically below the values in the Covid period. The results indicate contagion in Europe after the outbreak of the Covid-2019 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a newly created panel data set of relative prices for a large number of consumer goods among 31 European countries over a 15-year period. The data set includes eurozone members both before and after the inception of the euro, floating exchange rate countries of Western Europe, and emerging market economies of Eastern and Southern Europe. We find that there is a substantial and continuing deviation from purchasing power parity (PPP) at all levels of aggregation, both for traded and non-traded goods, even among eurozone members. Real exchange rates (RER) exhibit two clear properties in the sample (a) they are closely tied to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita relative to the European average, at all levels of aggregation and for both cross country time series variation; (b) they are highly positively correlated with variation in the relative price of non-traded goods. We then construct a simple two-sector endowment economy model of real exchange rate determination which exhibits these two properties, calibrated to match the data. Simulating the model using the historical relative GDP per capita for each country, we find that for most countries, there is a close fit between the actual and simulated real exchange rate. In terms of policy relevance, the model can offer suggestions of the degree to which real exchange rates in Europe (both in and out of the eurozone) have been overvalued (by approximately 15% in Greece and Portugal and 6% in Italy and Spain). -Martin Berka and Michael B. Devereux [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the contents of the "NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1999," focusing primary on explanations of current notable macroeconomics phenomena. Arguments of Takeo Hoshi and Anil Kashyap on their view of the causes and implications of the Japanese banking crisis; Aims of John Heaton and Deborah Lucas on their claim that the stock-market boom in the U.S. can be explained by increases in stock -market participation; Discussion of Roberto Chang and Andrés Velasco on the properties of financial-market crises as well as the policy implications derived by considering a very specific interpretation of these crises.

Input-Output modellers are often faced with the task of estimating missing Use tables at basic prices and also valuation matrices of the individual countries. This paper examines a selection of estimation methods applied to the European context where the analysts are not in possession of superior data. The estimation methods are restricted to the use of automated methods that would require more than just the row and column sums of the tables (as in projections) but less than a combination of various conflicting information (as in compilation). The results are assessed against the official Supply, Use and Input-Output tables of Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Slovakia by using matrix difference metrics. The main conclusion is that using the structures of previous years usually performs better than any other approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that there are strong reputational effects in a general class of second price auctions. If reputation is one-sided and bidders are patient, then the bidder without reputation does not challenge the other bidder often. Consequently, the bidder with reputation obtains most of the surplus, the other bidder and the seller get very little. If reputation is two-sided, then the bidders engage in a game akin to War of Attrition. The resulting payoff is very low for the bidders and very high for the seller. In any case, the Folk Theorem fails: collusion in the second price auctions is impossible. The predictions of the model are that prices in early auctions should reach levels that are higher than the value of the object, then declining towards the reserve price; a set of strong bidders emerges. A recent series of auctions of spectrum for UMTS services in Europe seems to be consistent with the predictions of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in liquefied natural gas trade has accelerated the integration of previously segmented markets in North America, Europe, and Asia. This paper provides evidence on the integration of the transatlantic natural gas market; it thus complements other papers in the EMF 23 study that focus on prices and international natural gas trade. We test the theoretical proposition that in integrating markets commodity prices should move closer than before. Using 2,059 pairs of daily spot prices for natural gas in North America and Europe we investigate price dynamics covering the period from 1999 until 2008. We apply the Kalman Filter technique which measures convergence by allowing for dynamic structural change to gain detailed information on trends inherent in prices over time. Results suggest an increasing convergence of spot prices on either side of the Atlantic Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the European Commission’s Consumer Survey to assess whether inflation expectations have converged and whether inflation uncertainty has diminished following the introduction of the euro in Europe. Consumers’ responses to the survey suggest that inflation expectations depend more on past national inflation rates than on the ECB’s anchor for price stability. Inflation expectations do not converge significantly faster than actual inflation rates. Regarding inflation uncertainty, the data indicate a relationship with country size following the introduction of the euro. This suggests that within EMU, inflation uncertainty may increase in countries that have a smaller influence on ECB policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the price stability objective within the framework of the single monetary policy strategy. It starts by reviewing what this objective, which is common to all central banks, means. Second, this paper focuses exclusively on the anchoring of short- to medium-term inflation expectations (Part 2). Several measures show that this anchoring is effective. A ‘two-pillar’ small structural macro-economic model framework is used to analyze the impact that this anchoring of expectations has on the determination of the short- to medium-term inflation rate. From this point of view, observed inflation in the euro area seems to be in line with the theory and the ECB's action seems to be very effective. Third, we focus on the other aspect of monetary stability: the degree of price-level uncertainty and the anchoring of inflation expectations in the medium to long term. Even though this assessment is more difficult than it is in the short to medium term, since we only have a track record covering 6 years, various indicators from the theoretical analysis paint a fairly reassuring picture of the effectiveness of the device used by the ECB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, formulas for commodity swaptions are presented. By utilizing the forward price based approach a simple closed form solution for European swaptions is derived based on the assumption of deterministic volatility for lognormal variables. The formulas result from applying the Margrabe (1978) exchange option concept to the present problem. A special case of constant volatility yields the Black (1976) formula that has been the market standard in the interest rate swaption markets for many years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a new framework to identify demand elasticities in markets where managers rely on algorithmic recommendations for price setting and apply it to a data set containing bookings for a sample of midsized hotels in Europe. Using nonbinding algorithmic price recommendations and observed delay in price adjustments by decision makers, we demonstrate that a control-function approach, combined with state-of-the-art model-selection techniques, can be used to isolate exogenous price variation and identify demand elasticities across hotel room types and over time. We confirm these elasticity estimates with a difference-in-differences approach that leverages the same delays in price adjustments by decision makers. However, the difference-in-differences estimates are more noisy and only yield consistent estimates if data are pooled across hotels. We then apply our control-function approach to two classic questions in the dynamic pricing literature: the evolution of price elasticity of demand over and the effects of a transitory price change on future demand due to the presence of strategic buyers. Finally, we discuss how our empirical framework can be applied directly to other decision-making situations in which recommendation systems are used. This paper was accepted by Omar Besbes, revenue management and market analytics. Funding: D. Garcia acknowledges financial support from the Austrian Science Fund [Single Project "Understanding Consumer Search" FWF-P 30922]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4261. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the valuation of average options of European type where an investor has the right to buy the average of an asset price process over some time interval, as the terminal price, at a prespecified exercise price. A discrete model is first constructed and a recurrence formula is derived for the exact price of the discrete average call option. For the continuous average call option price, we derive some approximations and theoretical upper and lower bounds. These approximations are shown to be very accurate for at-the-money and in-the-money cases compared to the simulation results. The theoretical bounds can be used to provide useful information in pricing average options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being an environmentally friendly fuel obtained from rapeseed oil, biodiesel is used extensively in Europe. However, the dependence structure between global crude oil prices and the European prices of biodiesel and rapeseed oil is understudied and unclear. In this paper, we address this gap by utilizing asymmetric copulas and cross-quantilogram approaches on daily data. The results of the DCC-Student-t copula indicate that during bearish periods the conditional connectedness between crude oil prices and biodiesel (rapeseed oil) prices are stronger than during bullish periods, indicating increased co-movement with a decline in crude oil prices. The application of cross-quantilogram indicates that an increase in crude oil price positively influences biodiesel prices reflecting an asymmetric dependence structure among the assets. There is evidence of shifts in the dynamics of quantile dependency during periods of financial and economic turmoil. Overall, the results show a significant dependence between the global crude oil market and the European markets of biodiesel and rapeseed oil in specific periods and under specific market conditions, which have important implications for policymakers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pellet market is growing but with different characteristics in different countries and regions. In this paper we trace developments between 2008 and 2016. For 2008, production was reported at 9.8 Tg, expanding globally to 14.3 Tg in 2010 and surpassing 26 Tg in 2015. Global hot spots are North America (production) and Europe (consumption). Sustainability certification was applied for about 9 Tg in 2016. Nevertheless, projections for future development are difficult as low pellet prices and uncertain sustainability obligations may hinder further expansion. In general, there is a strong dependency of the pellet market on the policy framework. © 2018 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent research on asset pricing shows that the higher liquidity that results from the globalization of financial markets has significantly reduced the returns tied to many market anomaly-based strategies. However, in general, that research does not evaluate the effects that the mitigation of market anomalies may imply on the performance of the classic asset pricing models. On this basis, in this paper we study to what extent the lower returns provided by market anomaly-based strategies imply better performance of those models. Hence, the main purpose of our study is to compare the performance over time of some of the most prominent asset pricing models, namely, the CAPM and the Fama and French three- and five-factor models, on the European and US equity markets, using return series that cover more than 30 years. Our results show that, although the CAPM is the model with the worst performance in explaining excess returns in all periods both in Europe and US, the model has increased its explanatory power in the recent years principally due to the attenuation of classic market anomalies, such as the size effect or the value effect. Furthermore, our results show that the CAPM correctly prices the three classic Fama and French factors for the years 2006-2021, which explains the best performance of the model for that time interval. Our results have important implications for investment analysis, as well as for determining the cost of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to analyze the development of organic agriculture in the world, the EU and Romania, based on the statistical data for the period 2006-2010 and the index, share and comparison methods. Organic agriculture covers 34.04 Million ha at world level, of which 26.99 % in Europe and 32.08 % in Oceania. The largest areas in organic agriculture are in Australia, Argentina, the USA, Brazil, Spain, China and Italy. At world level, there are 1.6 million organic producers, over 63 % operating in Africa and Asia, especially in India, Uganda and Mexico. In 2010, organic food sales accounted for Euro 44.5 Billions of which 50 % in Europe. In the same year, the organic agriculture area increased by 20 % in the EU-27 and reached 9.01 million ha and continues to grow, representing 5.10 % of agricultural land. The larges areas in organic agriculture are in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. In the EU-27 there are 219,290 organic producers of which 40 % in Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria. In 2010, Romania's area in organic agriculture was 300,205 ha, 2 times higher than in 2006. A number of 10,253 organic operators were registered in 2010, representing 4.67 %, of the EU number. The main organic products are cereals, vegetables, wine, honey, dairy products, representing a chance for Romania's export on the EU market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a stochastic volatility model for pricing multi-asset European options that are widely used in the real world, under the assumption that the volatilities are driven by different OU processes. Using the singular perturbation method for multi-parameter and the boundary layer theory, we derive a uniform asymptotic expansion for the option prices, as well as the uniform error estimates. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the residential natural gas demand in 12 European countries using a dynamic demand model, which allows for country-specific short- and long-run elasticity estimates. The own-price and income elasticities tend to be very inelastic in the short run, albeit with much greater responsiveness in the longer run. Our results support very limited technological substitution possibilities between different energy carriers in the short run. Furthermore, the results suggested structural differences of residential natural gas demand across European countries and provide support for employing a heterogeneous estimator such as the shrinkage estimator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at price trends as signals for the evaluation of utility reforms. A specific example is considered: electricity prices in four countries, namely France, Germany, Italy and UK. These countries offer a natural experiment in different patterns of public/private ownership and liberalisation of electricity industry. Electricity prices are mainly influenced by the mix of energy inputs, their costs, and by consumption per capita. Under different institutional settings, prices for business users are often more cost‐reflective than prices for residential users. Beyond these common features, the evidence does not support the view that there is clear dominance of one industry pattern in terms of welfare change for the representative consumer. This conclusion tends to question the widely held idea that one specific ‘orthodox’ reform should be preferred: privatisation with liberalisation and vertical disintegration. Utility reforms should be flexible and country‐specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses micro-level price data from the European car market to examine why there are deviations from the law of one price. The absolute law of one price is strongly rejected, but there is convergence to its relative version. Two sets of explanations are considered: (i) price-setting in segmented markets, and (ii) arbitrage barriers. Overall, the determinants of arbitrage costs have more explanatory power. The single most important factor is the distance between markets. Evidence for Belgium and Luxembourg suggests that a single currency lowers price differences significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A co-ordinated approach to fiscal policy in the euro area is desirable from a political economy standpoint if it protects against the harmful side effects which can arise from member states' fiscal policies. At the same time, however, closer economic co-ordination between national governments is perceived by some as a threat to the independence of the European Central Bank and with it the credibility of its price stability mandate. A variant of the open method, which is known as multilateral surveillance, has been assigned the unenviable task of minimizing the costs of macroeconomic co-ordination, while at the same time delivering the benefits. Whilst the open method poses little threat to the independence of the ECB, its effectiveness is contingent, in the absence of legal obligation and the threat of financial penalties, on the impact of peer pressure and consensus-building mechanisms. This paper assesses the potential of these mechanisms and then draws lessons about the scope and limits of the open method in the light of Portugal's recent breach of the Stability and Growth Pact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates pricing to market behaviour using data for European auto exports. The empirical analysis uses forward instead of spot exchange rates. Cross-country and cross-product analyses reveal that pricing behaviour depends mainly on the class of product, while the country of origin and destination appears as less important. Furthermore, the data do not usually reject the hypothesis of a symmetric response of export prices to depreciations and appreciations of the exporter's currency. Finally, although the point estimates confirm the combined influence of the business cycle and the direction of the exchange rate movements on pricing to market in most cases, formal tests seldom provide statistical significance for this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has four goals: (a) relate ladder height distributions to option values; (b) show how Laguerre expansions may be used in the computation of densities, distribution functions, and option prices; (c) derive some new results on the integral of geometric Brownian motion over a finite interval; and (d) apply the preceding results to the determination of the distribution of the integral of geometric Brownian motion and the computation of Asian option values. The usual fixed-strike options on the average are treated, as well as options with payoffs expressed in terms of one over the avenge of the underlying security, which this author calls "reciprocal Asian options." In all cases the underlying asset is represented by geometric Brownian motion, the averages are performed continuously, and the options are of European type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers policy issues arising in the design, regulation and taxation of lotteries, focusing on the market for an on-line lottery game. Demand determines who buys lottery tickets and in what quantities. The design of lotteries affects the terms on which tickets are supplied. UK data suggest that its lottery may be priced too high to maximize lottery revenue more revenue might be raised if the proportion of sales allocated to tax and other levies were smaller. Having established the positive economics of lotteries, the paper then assesses their welfare implications. Pari-mutuel lotteries enjoy scale economies and, as natural monopolies, are invariably run either by government agencies or a regulated licensee. I estimate consumer surplus and identify the excess burden that arises from existing (over) taxation of lotteries. The large price elasticity of demand implies that revenue raised from the lottery is raised very inefficiently. Moreover, the demand for lottery tickets is inferior (and there is some evidence that such games are contagious and addictive). So using lotteries as a vehicle for raising revenue is extremely regressive. Finally, I consider other policy implications: induced effects on charitable giving and on other forms of gambling; the impact on the government budget; perceptions of risk; and distributional considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction in trade barriers in Europe through the Single Market Programme (SMP) was intended to increase competition in European markets, and hence welfare and efficiency. The paper examines how the SMP has affected trade patterns and what can be learnt from this regarding the impact on competitive behavior. Combining an econometric and computable general equilibrium methodology, it is argued that (1) the SMP has indeed had a strong impact on competitive behavior; (2) the extent of the impact depends both on changes in the intensity of competition as well as on changes in the nature of competitive interaction; (3) while all economies experience potentially large welfare gains from the SMP, it is the smaller economies that experience the larger gains, but this in turn suggests that they experience a greater degree of restructuring. INSETS: Box 1. The dynamics of the Single Market Programme: the...;Box 2. What is a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most alternative blueprints for European Monetary Union (EMU) differ in their opinions about convergence requirements or the need for binding fiscal rules and controls of individual national governments' debt policies, but there is, if not complete consensus, widespread agreement that the European Central Bank (ECB) should be independent of political control from both European Community (EC) institutions and national governments. The main argument for an independent European central bank is empirical: those countries in which central banks are insulated from the political process and charged with maintaining price stability have experienced the lowest and most stable inflation rates in recent decades. The present paper reviews and critically evaluates this political economy literature which relates inflation performances to the constitutional features of central bank statutes. Based on this assessment the draft statutes of the ECB and the constitutions of the individual European national central banks are discussed in terms of the independence they grant central bank board members from partisan influences. Furthermore, concrete country-specific specific suggestions for enhancing central bank independence during stage two of the gradual transition of EMU, which is to be completed by 1999, are made. It is argued that in some countries laborious constitutional reforms of central bank statutes are overdue and must be implemented in order to make these institutions fit for an anti-inflationary EMU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper embeds survey price expectations of manufacturing into a mark-up model of price determination. The model, which is employed to forecast (changes in) growth in consumer and producer prices one quarter ahead, is estimated for seven EEC countries. The predictive performance, in terms of the mean forecast error, of the model is compared with an ARIMA forecast of inflation. The results suggest that the predictive performance of the price-expectational-augmented price model is superior to the ARIMA model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the predictive impact of weather conditions and electricity demand on hourly spot prices of emissions allowances during the first three phases of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) (2005–2019). We propose an original methodology for constructing European-scale electricity demand and weather indices and characterize the relationship between those indices and emissions allowances prices by means of an advanced predictive modeling technique (Extreme Gradient Boosting). Empirical findings assert that electricity demand and the weather variables under study were of importance for estimating EUA prices during the first three phases of the EU ETS, with air temperature and electricity demand being most relevant to emissions allowances prices. Conversely, total precipitation and relative humidity proved to be the least relevant variables to the outcome. The results also indicate that the relationship between emissions allowances prices and their weather-related predictors was not linear in the studied period. The paper contributes to the growing body of literature on the structural determinants of carbon prices in the EU ETS and enhances our understanding of the impact of climate and weather variability – in the provision of renewable energy production – on the most prominent market-based measure to reduce CO 2 emissions in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]