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The sustainable development (SD) strategies of two successive French governments, led by Prime Ministers Jospin (1997–2002) and Raffarin (from 2002), are compared and analysed in relation to three debates: (i) the influence of institutional settings and levels of continuity between international, European and national policy frameworks; (ii) compatibility between SD policy frames, national policy style and institutional capacity and (iii) relationships between traditional political discourses and SD discourse. Difficulties in achieving a good ‘fit’ are identified in each of these areas, explanations are offered and implications for future developments outlined. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the economic performance of the EU cohesion countries—Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland — from 1960 to the present, in order to identify the processes that have promoted or inhibited real convergence prospects at various points in time. The likely impacts of EMU in strengthening or weakening these processes are then analysed. Amongst the factors studied are labour-market performance, macroeconomic stability and the efficacy of microeconomic policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the plan for the modernization of the European social model. How the social agenda approved by the Lisbon European Council affected the need to redesign the welfare system and labour market regulations in the region; Importance of the modernization on the region's social policy; Economic analysis of the modernization.

Addresses the relationship between research and development (R&D) and economic growth in Western Europe. Problems facing researchers willing to study the relationship between the resources devoted to R&D and economic growth; Connection between R&D and growth in Europe; Conclusions.

The article comments on author A.J. Scott's analysis of the rise of new industrial spaces in North America and western Europe. His account, bringing together a number of ideas and empirical claims which are rapidly gaining influence in urban and regional research and beyond is a particularly helpful contribution to the debate concerning flexibility. First, he summarizes the argument that the current restructuring entails a transition from a fordist mode of economic organization towards a postfordist mode characterized by flexible accumulation. Secondly, he provides an original and lucid construction of the logic whereby economic restructuring might lead to spatial restructuring. His essay adds a new dimension to the argument for the renaissance of regional economies around new marshallian industrial districts. Scott integrates these ideas in a unified framework for thinking about these changes. This offers a unique opportunity to examine the theoretical and empirical issues involved.

Presents information on the economic condition of Europe. Recovery of European economies in the third quarter of 1997; Increase in the exports of Germany; Reduction in the budget deficit of Italy.

A 'revisionist' view of the European fertility transition has challenged the previously accepted causal roles of economic forces. Our contribution has been to construct and test an econometric model in which economic growth causes fertility change. We find that rising per capita incomes raised birth rates, up to estimated turning points, and thereafter exerted negative effects. This finding is partly consistent with the revisionist view: economic growth apparently did not cause the emergence of historical fertility declines, which antedated the turning points. However, in the later phases of the transition, economic growth accelerated the fertility down-trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents information on recent trends and future prospects for urban-rural migration in Europe. The article reviews this aspect of population redistribution and determine the extent to which cross national regularities exist. More specifically, this article reviews the findings of relevant studies, particularly in the European context, to determine the state of the knowledge regarding the magnitude of, and differences in the urban-rural or metropolitan-non-metropolitan mobility of the population. In doing so, the article touches upon the influences of demographic, social, economic and environmental variables. One must recognize that definitions of concepts such as urban or metropolitan will vary ac- cording to country usage. The analysis has dealt almost entirely with levels of net migration. While this is a useful concept for determining differentials in population growth rates, it tells us nothing about the underlying dynamics of the migration process and provides us with no clue as to the extent to which the changes already observed are attributable to increases or decreases in migration flows from urban to rural (or rural to urban) areas.

This article explores and engages with debates concerning the relation between internal and external 'Development' amongst nations. Types, trajectories, and patterns of economic growth and social structuring are investigated. Centering modes of trading and fiscal linkage and flow, the author concludes that 'a perspective from Europe', rather than a narrower 'British' view, has wider implications for the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue is concerned with the development of the Single European Market (SEM) and its likely impact on industrial relations in the member-states of the European Community (EC). The articles that follow present new empirical material, analysis and speculation on the development of industrial relations arrangements at the level of both the EC and the member-states.
The articles fall into three groups. The first provides a general overview of EC developments and the establishment of the Single Market. The second group then focuses on the structure and governance of firms within the EC and on channels of representation of workers' interests at enterprise level. The third part of the issue deals with likely economic problems and possible economic outcomes of the SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the South-North migration systems in the European Community (EC). It says that South-North refers to the migration streams between Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and industrialized countries. It states that combined demographic trends, age structures, and activity rates can cause unprecedented labour force growth in LDCs. It adds that striking economic and social equalities are disparities among industrialized and developing countries. It concludes that the future of South-North migration regarding Europe depends on the economic growth and policies of industrialized countries in the field of international migration.

The article focuses on the economic, social, and political changes that occurred as European societies ceased to be primarily agrarian in economic structure and devoted proportionately more of their resources and labor to the production of non-agricultural commodities and services. Industrialization is not identical either with economic growth or economic development, although it is closely associated with both. The process of economic growth, including in the modern era the special case of industrialization, involves the interaction of four broad classes or categories of factors--population, resources, technology, and institutions. In conclusion, there was not one model for industrialization in the nineteenth century. Coal and human capital were the two basic ingredients, but in combination with one another and with other elements they produced a variety of patterns of industrialization. The customary depiction of an industrial revolution in Great Britain and its repetition in continental Europe and elsewhere distorts the historical record.

The article examines the history of European economic growth during the period 1450-1750. According to the new school of development history, the critical period when different parts of the world set off along contrasting paths of economic growth occurred between 1450 and 1750, three centuries which witnessed the emergence and consolidation of European world economy based upon the capitalist mode of production. The evolution of trade and commerce under this old international economic order created conditions for development and underdevelopment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A striking feature of the new history of development is the absence of systematic statistical underpinning for several of its basic hypotheses. An important omission is its failure to measure the economic significance of intercontinental trade. External trade formed only a small share of economic activity. Around 1780-1790 when something like 4 percent of Europe's gross national output was exported across national frontiers, perhaps less than 1 percent would have been sold to Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the southern plantations of the young U.S.

This article compares the levels and associated factors of the industrial revolution in England and France in the eighteenth century, based on recent literature on economic history of these countries. Some of the major issues that are emphasized here are that why did the industrial revolution occurred in the eighteenth century and why England was comparatively advanced than any other country in the revolution. The underlying view of industrialization adopted here is that economic development in general and technological progress in particular in eighteenth-century Europe should, suggestively, be regarded as stochastic processes. According to the author industrial revolution will be understood as a period of accelerated structural change in the economy, involving a rapid rise in industrial output, in the share of manufacturing in national product, and in factory-based activity, based on major technological innovations. There are two important problems which can, suggestively, be perceived in the current attempts to explain England's primacy: the danger of perpetrating post hoc ergo proper hoc fallacies and the failure to assess the relative magnitudes of the impacts of the putative causal factors.

The article focuses on typologies and evidence that serve as a guide to economic growth in Europe during the nineteenth century. There has also been increased reliance on comparative methods by historians seeking to achieve a cross-fertilization of explanatory ideas. For both purposes it is desirable, for the first purpose essential, that any historical generalizations called into aid should be not only true of several particular instances but also should be very widely applicable. It could be harmfully misleading if what looked to be proclamations of universal relationships turned out to be no more than accounts of one or two highly individual cases, disguised in the language of generality. All the chief schemes expounding alleged universalities in the history of economic growth have received plenty of criticism, both appreciative and hostile, but it is doubtful whether they have often been starkly confronted by the question whether the evidence they use is comprehensive enough to provide a secure foundation of genuine history for edifices as vast as they have grown to be. They have been challenged on grounds of unclarity or inappropriateness in their basic concepts, or because they have been inaccurate on some specific points, or because some particular case may be more convincingly interpreted by postulating a different chain of causation.

Antonio J. Posada, Chief of Agrarian Reform and Rural Sociology Service, speaking on behalf of the Director-General of FAO, thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for its hospitality and facilities and welcomed the participants. He took note of past accomplishments of the Working Party on significant issues concerning rural social change in Europe, and of the complexities and importance of the social, cultural and institutional aspects of agricultural and general economic development and change in the different countries of the region. The documentation for the current session provided evidence of that complexity. The growing interest on the part of rural policy-makers and administrators in the human aspects of agriculture was a reassuring change. Posada then called attention to the FAO Conference decision to focus more of its resources on helping developing countries and its desire to reduce the number of statutory bodies. The Secretary briefly reviewed the history of the Working Party for the benefit of new participants, its previous seven sessions, the major areas of work and projects undertaken. He considered that the arrangements in this Working Party for the full participation of other international agencies and organizations had enriched the program and deliberations of the Working Party, and that the efforts of this group have helped to focus attention on the scientific analysis of current rural problems in Europe.

The author comments on the crises and cycles in the development of economics in Europe. He discusses that a crisis and the ensuing shift of research approaches are not an autonomous development of science but are caused by the external forces of change in the society. The reorientation of economics in the institutional direction clearly implies transdisciplinary research. It should focus on areas of specific problems as they become established for purposes of teaching and specialization.

Presents an overview of articles on economic policy agenda for the 21st century. Definition of the U.S. economic policy agenda; Analysis of the challenges of stimulating economic growth in Europe; Examination of the changes in European competition policy.

We investigate whether economic integration stimulates income convergence and whether changes in production, specialisation and trade patterns associated with the enlargement process foster economic growth and convergence among countries. We examine income convergence via endogenous growth model for countries in which the scale factor stemming from learning-by-doing is a prevailing feature. We illustrate a clear connection between externalities and trade among EU countries. Empirical evidence based on a panel of industries shows that learning from export and import related scale effect do significantly affect the convergence process. We find that there is a low speed of convergence across the EU manufacturing. This implies that the degree of cross-manufacturing productivity inequality disappears in the very long-run. This in turn implies that manufacturing sectors, which are predicted, to be more productive in the past, are the same sectors that are also productive today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]