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In papers using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, little attention has been paid to the determinants of sovereign debt ratings. We propose a reduced set of variables regarding the economic performance of a country that are consistent with the idea of debt sustainability. The robustness of this set is supported by the results obtained with different well-known AI techniques using data from EU-15 countries during the 2002–2017 period as the experimental setting. The variables are publicly available, allowing a quick and reliable assessment of the creditworthiness of a sovereign and providing useful information for decision-makers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars have suggested that political dividedness has harmful effects on economic performance. Interestingly, empirical tests tackling this argument are almost entirely absent. The paper aims to fill this gap by testing the above hypothesis using data from the European Social Survey, including 27 countries between 2002 and 2015. Controlling for a range of well-known explanatory variables, the results of the panel regression analysis suggest that partisan polarisation is adversely related to economic growth, while ideological polarisation is not. The finding is congruent with the hypothesis of polarisation having a notable negative effect on growth, yet future works are necessary to test both the direction and the possible channels of causality. As scholars increasingly describe contemporary politics as an era of growing polarisation, the results imply that partisan polarisation should deserve more attention from political scientists and economists as a factor that might influence economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the roots of territorial cohesion thinking in the 'European model of society'. There is much to do about this model. Some regard it as a liability for European competitiveness. The Barroso Commission wants to safeguard the model by, albeit temporarily, giving priority to growth. There are those - not only in Europe, but also on the other side of the Atlantic - arguing that the European model forms a solid basis for a highly competitive economy. In these debates, 'European model' stands for moderating the pursuit of economic growth with concerns for social welfare and equity, sustainability and good governance. Before elaborating, the paper summarises the discussion about territorial cohesion and the struggle over current EU policy. Then the paper backtracks to the ideas of Jacques Delors responsible for injecting the European model into the integration discourse. What follows is an account of four reports in the wake of the hapless Lisbon Strategy, all invoking the European model. The paper concludes with reflections on territorial cohesion policy and the European model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the sustainability of current urban regeneration practice, through the application of weighted indicators and a points scoring framework. The analysis applies the hierarchical model discussed in the preceding paper of this journal issue to case studies of waterfront areas and cultural quarters in three European cities: Belfast, Dublin and Barcelona. The evaluation permits performance comparisons to be made between the case studies regarding the sustainability of regeneration areas and projects, variations on an indicator set basis and the sensitivity of scores. Conclusions are drawn concerning regeneration practice, the extent to which sustainability principles are adhered to, potential policy benefits and the applicability of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the current Eurozone crisis, this paper argues that the economic crisis has provoked a crisis of identity in the EU. This paper examines popular discourse on Germany and Angela Merkel in the Eurozone periphery, France and the UK according to which Europe is effectively being colonised by Germany—the so-called ‘Fourth Reich’. Using theories of fear and disgust including Burke's Sublime, Kristeva's Abject and, especially, Freud's Uncanny, it is argued that this Discourse can be understood as an essentially Gothic narrative based around the fear of the ‘return of the repressed’—in this case Nazi Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current financial turbulence in Europe inspires and perhaps requires researchers to rethink how to measure incomes, wealth, and other parameters of interest to policy-makers and others. The noticeable increase in disparities between less and more fortunate individuals suggests that measures based upon comparing the incomes of less fortunate with the mean of the entire population may not be adequate. The classical Gini and related indices of economic inequality, however, are based exactly on such comparisons. It is because of this reason that in this paper we explore and contrast the classical Gini index with a new Zenga index, the latter being based on comparisons of the means of less and more fortunate sub-populations, irrespectively of the threshold that might be used to delineate the two sub-populations. The empirical part of the paper is based on the 2001 wave of the European Community Household Panel data set provided by EuroStat. Even though sample sizes appear to be large, we supplement the estimated Gini and Zenga indices with measures of variability in the form of normal, t-bootstrap, and bootstrap bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the observed impact of past economic downturns on human development indicators in 29 countries of the region. We estimate empirical elasticities of key human development indicators covering demographics, crime, epidemiology, unemployment, and poverty with respect to changes in per-capita purchase power parity (PPP) gross domestic product. Based on published gross domestic product growth projections from the IMF, we then project the likely impact on the human development indicators in coming years for the countries in the region. The results suggest that the adverse impact of past downturn in income on poverty, public health, mortality, and suicide and homicide rates is likely to be considerable, long-lasting, and to affect the poorest disproportionately. Based on our results, we argue that policy-makers will need better and more timely data to provide the evidence base for policies; and that those policies need to take into account the looming substantial backslide in human development indicators stemming from the global economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes monetary policy asymmetries in EMU participating countries. In particular, we use a structural dynamic modelling approach to investigate asymmetric monetary transmission in Europe. Asymmetries are investigated in two different ways. First, we restrict the estimated structural models reflecting the monetary constraints each country faced during the EMS period. We obtain well-behaved and comparable effects of monetary policy shocks. Second, efficiency frontiers for the selected EMU countries are estimated. In computing the optimal combinations of output gap and inflation volatility we use a weighted average of interest rate and exchange rate, i.e. the Monetary Condition Index (MCI), as a policy instrument. The impulse response analysis implemented with the MCI shows relatively small differences in the responses of the real economy to monetary policy shocks. Altogether the results suggest that, no matter which policy instrument is used, output gap and inflation respond to identical monetary shocks with a similar speed and movement, albeit with a different degree of effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an indicator-based methodology to identify lead markets in the European automotive industry. The lead market approach tries to explain why certain countries are better positioned than others for developing and launching new products. While much research stresses the role of excellence in technology and interaction among users and producers, the lead market approach focuses on the role of demand characteristics. Based on the concept of innovation design, a lead market is defined as a country where customers prefer that design which subsequently becomes the globally dominant design. We use an indicator-based approach which has been successfully employed for individual products as well as for various industries in order to identify lead markets in the European automotive industry. Employing five lead market factors, our results show that the EU is by far no homogeneous market for automobiles and national markets differ considerably in their lead market potential. The German market is found to be most promising to serve as a lead market, while other European countries with a strong automotive tradition like France, Italy, the UK, and Sweden score lower. Our findings suggest that firms from the automotive industry should exploit this diversity of market characteristics within Europe when developing and launching new products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces indicators of regional related variety and unrelated variety to conceptually overcome the current impasse in the specialization-diversity debate in agglomeration economics. Although various country-level studies have been published on this conceptualization in recent years, a pan-European test has been missing from the literature until now. A pan-European test is more interesting than country-level tests, as newly defined cohesion policies, smart-specialization policies, place-based development strategies and competitiveness policies may be especially served by related variety and unrelated variety conceptualizations. We test empirically for the significance of variables based on these concepts, using a cross-sectional data set for 205 European regions during the period 2000–2010. The results confirming our hypotheses are that related variety is significantly related to employment growth, especially in small and medium-sized city-regions, and that specialization is significantly related to productivity growth. We do not find robust relationships that are hypothesized between unrelated variety and unemployment growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It has been argued that the concept of “borrowed size” is essential to understanding urban patterns and dynamics in North-West Europe. This paper conceptualizes this idea and provides an empirical exploration of it. A place borrows size when it hosts more urban functions than its own size could normally support. A borrowed size for one place means that other places face an “agglomeration shadow” because they host fewer urban functions than they would normally support. This paper explores the extent to which size and function are related for places in North-West Europe and tries to explain why one place borrows size while the other faces an agglomeration shadow by examining the position of places within the regional urban system. The presence of urban functions was approximated using high-end cultural amenities. We conclude that the largest places in their functional urban area (FUA) are better able to exploit their own mass. The largest place in a FUA is also better able to borrow size from nearby places and from (inter)national urban networks than the lower-ranked places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the current picture of higher education and conditions for the application of benchmarking. The chosen examples of benchmarking projects conducted in higher education illustrate the spectrum of benchmarking usage. The authors conclude the paper with a recommendation for the employment of benchmarking in the higher education environment, especially in the light of competition pressures and rapid economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European regions have experienced a greater presence of service producers in their economy over the last few decades. Indeed, the manufacturing sector increasingly contracts out many activities to intermediate producer services. This is mostly because they are located close to each other and because services experience increasing returns to scale which reduce their marginal costs. In this paper, we propose to measure the extent to which productivity in services has converged across European regions. The model we use, originally developed by Verdoorn (1949), takes the increasing returns to scale explicitly into account. We apply spatial econometric techniques and control for border effects by introducing two different spatial weights matrices under the assumption that economic interactions decrease very substantially when a national border is passed. Furthermore, we take proper care of the presence of both types (spatial and non-spatial) of endogeneity by using spatial two stages least squares (Kelejian and Prucha 1998). Our conclusions bring new insights in the identification of regional productivity differentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of labor market institutions in explaining different labor market developments in European countries, paying special attention to the new EU member countries. This may allow us to analyze the effects of various institutional setups and their changes to major labor market indicators. We complement several studies from the late 1990s by using more recent data that allow us to compare institutional setups from the mid-1990s and early 2000s in both old and new EU member states. We estimate the effects of labor market institutions on various performance indicators (unemployment, long-term unemployment, employment, activity rate). Our results confirm that high taxes increase unemployment, whereas active labor market policies tend to reduce it. We also show that stricter employment protection, higher taxes, and a larger economic burden represented by the minimum wage decrease employment and activity rates. Statistical tests indicate a difference in the institutional effects between old and new EU members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper describes the small but constant expansion of the cross-state mobile population within the EU in the two decades preceding the 2004 enlargement. This expansion is puzzling in the light of the economic growth and the income convergence of member states over the same period. While the level of geographical mobility within the EU is frequently held to be 'low', data show that it should have been even lower given the rise of prosperity and the decline of income differentials in the EU15. In fact, it is argued that pro-mobility policies and the rise of non-labour migration have countered the diminishing appeal of intra-EU mobility that might be expected on the basis of purely economic conditions. The second part of the paper discusses the rationales and reasons of mobility. A distinction is drawn between observers' and social actors' views of the benefits of free movement. While the former usually put an emphasis on economic rewards, the latter are more likely to stress emotional and identity-linked returns. Survey data on Western European citizens who have resettled in another EU member state are revealing of the multifaceted causes and consequences of geographical mobility. In particular, these data show that identification with Europe and support for EU institutions in the mobile population are strikingly higher than among the general population. While it is true that cross-state mobility can entail economic benefits raising productivity and innovation, its political dividends are possibly even clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of Southeast European countries (SEECs) depends crucially on international trade. This paper empirically analyzes intraindustry trade between SEECs and the European Union using bilateral trade data at the combined nomenclature four-digit level from 1996 to 2004. We analyze trade patterns for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro. Applying the Grubel-Lloyd index indicates changes in the trade of manufactured goods between the SEECs and the European Union during the first years of the Stabilization and Association Agreement implementation period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A relevant share of the theoretical and empirical analysis on economic growth has been devoted to finding a specific role for international trade in reinforcing countries' growth rates. Not as much attention has been dedicated to the role of sectoral composition of export in influencing the effect of trade on income convergence. In this paper we look at this issue along the line of research on multiple regimes and convergence clubs, considering how openness and similarity in export composition among countries can induce convergence in income levels among the same countries. We apply our analysis to the catching-up of income levels of Central and Eastern Europe Countries to the EU benchmark. We explicitly consider the sectoral export patterns of the CEECs by comparing them to those of the 15 old members of the EU, focusing on countries' specialization as suppliers for the EU market. Our main result is that similarity in export composition has a positive, significant and nonlinear impact on catching-up. Results are robust to controlling for openness and country-size and for investment, schooling, and the quality of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, many major Western cities aim to be attractive to new and economically successful high-tech industries, financial and business services, cultural industries and consumer services industries. Most of these new activities are dependent upon well-skilled creative workers, which will be followed by those who will work in personal services. It is said that a large share of the well-skilled and creative workers requires impulse-rich and attractive urban environments. The idea has arisen that highly segregated, socially and culturally less integrated cities, do not match the newly required city profiles. On the contrary, these cities would exacerbate urban poverty and deter skilled people from settling there. Consequently, some believe that today's cities should also be socially and culturally cohesive. This hypothesis parallels policies against segregation and policy interventions in favour of more mixed and balanced local communities. The latter type of policy is also driven by the idea that more mixed neighbourhoods will enhance individual social opportunities and thus, on aggregate, strengthen the urban economy. This paper elaborates on these ideas and hypotheses and focuses on the rise of new economic activities and the locations they aim for, their potential relation with the social (and ethnic) segregation of the population and the related impact upon the attraction of creative workers and the possible impact on the social mobility of the population. Empirical data from Europe are used to support the arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, the economic performance of European countries was disappointing in the 1990s. However, country differences increased, and in some European countries economic growth matched US rates. This paper uses a set of performance indicators to carve out a group of successful European countries and to compare their economic strategies to those of the more poorly performing, big continental economies. The analysis shows that the successful countries implemented a policy mixture of cost cutting, improving institutions, and investing in future growth. We consider the first two strategy elements to be preconditions, while investment in growth drivers such as research, education and technology diffusion is the sufficient condition for long-run growth. The difference between top and low performers is larger with respect to the dynamics of future investment than in cost cutting. In research expenditures, the top countries surpassed the big continental European countries in 1987, and have been increasing their lead steadily since that time. They are welfare states with a comprehensive social net, which they have maintained in principle, while improving institutions and incentive structures. The results are not in line with the usual twin hypotheses that high welfare costs and insufficient labour market flexibility are the main culprits in European underperformance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim to enhance the prevailing structural perspective on metropolization by pointing to the mutual relationship between the processes of metropolization and polycentric development. We claim that a processual view is needed to emphasize the temporal dependencies between different layers of polycentricity, and to reveal that European city–regions are situated in different stages of polycentric metropolitan development (PMD). To illustrate this empirically, we first analyse Bratislava and Vienna as two European city–regions that recently decided to jointly approach metropolitan development, while their contextual conditions and development trajectories differ significantly. It is shown upon an indicator-based analysis that the two are in different phases of the metropolization process. Confronting this evidence with stakeholder assessments of the need for strategic intervention in metropolitan development further uncovers the importance of the strategic dimension in metropolitan research. Building upon that, we conduct cluster analysis for a sample of 50 European city–regions by the same indicator set. It is shown that even this large sample of agglomerations can be grouped by different types of metropolizes, reflecting distinct effects of the metropolization process on urban-regional transformation. Hence, we conclude that a processual understanding in strategic approaches to PMD is necessary. Only if the different phases, paces, and effects of the metropolization process are taken into account, we can formulate serious recommendations for the polycentric development of distinct European urban territories. The move from structural to processual understanding is an essential foundation to learning processes for the governance of future PMD. Furthermore, the emphasis on different types of metropolizes should be taken into account in the formulation of future European policies on metropolitan development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The construction of the new Europe based on knowledge strengthens the role of the regions and offers great potential for generating higher levels of growth and employment and greater prosperity and cohesion. In this paper, the geographical distribution of knowledge produced by European universities in the regions has been analysed by means of a sample from 213 regions in the EU-15, comparing its degree of concentration with that of economic activity and verifying whether a process of convergence of relevant indicators has taken place during the period 1998-2004. Finally, an evaluation as to whether this convergence of university scientific and technological knowledge affects the regional economic convergence has been carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the large volume of resources employed in policies financed by the Structural Funds and the importance of the Objectives pursued, this paper seeks to perform an analysis of the efficiency of the application of these resources to increase productivity and employment by those regions classified as Objective 1 over the period 2000-2006. In the first place we are going to identify which are the most efficient regions by calculating both the level of efficiency according to the results obtained from the resources used (pure technical efficiency (PTE)) and the degree of efficiency according to their optimum production capacity (scale efficiency (SE)) and we have determine the “Reference Set” for inefficient regions. Finally, we will analyse the extent to which certain factors have repercussions on the efficiency such as country, geographical location and contribution of agriculture of GDP. The result indicates that the PTE of the regions are higher level although it does operate on an optimum scale. Furthermore, the country, geographical location and contribution of agriculture of GDP have significantly influences of PTE and SE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine changes in the balance of intra-European migration during the years 1985-99. We Construct two indices for measuring intra- European migration between each member state and the rest of the EU1 5. Non- parametric tests indicate that there is a close and increasing relationship between real GDP per capita and the pattern of net migration within Europe. Further, statistical tests suggest that, on the whole, intra-European migration has actually become more balanced after the implementation of the Schengen agreement in 1995. A Chow test also reveals that 1995 is the break-year after which levels of intra-European migration shifted upwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CASELLAS A. and GALLEY C. C. (1999) Regional definitions in the European Union: a question of disparities?, Reg. Studies 33, 551-558. This paper explores the concept of regional disparities in the European Union (EU) and challenges the present regional classification. The EU Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, referred to by the French acronym NUTS, is very heterogeneous in character. Tiny islands, cities, large rural regions and entire countries are considered to be comparable units for analysis. A reformulation of regional boundaries and the comparison to the US case helps to show that regional disparities within the EU are overstated as an artifact of the present regional definitions. Our findings show that the EU regional nomenclature should be more coherent if it is to be used as the basis for regional development policies. CASELLAS A. et GALLEY C. C. (1999) La délimitation des régions au sein de l'Union européenne: s'agit-il des écarts? Reg. Studies 33, 551-558. Cet article cherchè a examiner la notion d'écarts régionaux au sein de l'Union européenne (Ue) et à débattre le classement actuel des régions. Le champ de la Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques (NUTS) de l'Union européenne est très hétérogène. Ilots, villes, grandes régions rurales et pays entiers sont considérés des unités territoriales comparables. Une nouvelle délimitation des régions et une comparaison avec la situation aux Etats-Unis laissent voir que les écarts régionaux au sein de l'Union européenne s'avèrent exagérés en fonction de la délimitation actuelle. Les résultats montrent que la nomenclature régional e del'Union européenne devrait être plus cohérente si l'on compte s'en servir pour élaborer des politiques d'aménagement du territoire. CASELLAS A. und GALLEY C. C. (1999) Regionale Definitionen in der Europäischen Union: Eine Frage von Ungleichheiten?, Reg. Studies 33, 551–558. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht den Begriff regionaler Ungleichheiten in der Europäischen Union (EU) und stellt ihre gegenwärtige Regionalklassifikation in Frage. Systematik der GebietseinheitenfürdieStatistik inderEU, diemit demfranzösischen Akronym NUTS bezeichnet wird, ist wesensmäßig sehr unterschiedlich. Winzige Inseln, Städte, ausgedehnte ländliche Gebiete und ganze Länder werden als für Analysen vergleichbare, einander ähnliche Einheiten aufgefaßt. Die Neubestimmung regionaler Grenzen und ein Vergleich mit den Vereinigten Staatenträgt dazu bei, die Überbetonung der regionalen Ungleichheiten innerhalb der EU aufzuzeigen, die Ergebnisse der gegenwärtig geltenden Regional definitionen sind. Die Befunde der Autoren weisen darauf hin, daß die Regional nomenklatur der EU schlüssiger sein müßte, wenn sie als Grundlage für Entwicklungspolitik verwendbar sein soll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependence of carbon allowances and different energy sources in extreme market behavior is still unsettled in the literature. Using different types of static and time-varying copulas, this piece of research aims to quantify the dependence structures of Europe-based carbon future returns and selected energy future returns (i.e. coal, electricity, oil, and natural gas), and to investigate whether or not these dependence structures are influenced by economic indicators. Our results show strong evidence that timevarying parameter copulas with extreme tails are the best fit to the dependence structure. We also find that the speculation activity and the uncertainty of the state of the global economy are two important components of this robust dependence structure in the period of oil price crises. These findings are relevant for the implementation of effective policies to make the carbon market operate more efficiently and stably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the economic and competition policies in Europe, highlighting the impact of merger control decisions in the industry. It describes competition as a self-organised, decentralised coordination process that coordinates suppliers and customers on markets through price signals that reflect changing scarcities. It notes that the impact of merger control decisions should be to protect and maintain competition by preventing the emergence of anti-competitive mergers. and stresses that merger control decisions should impose a low degree of interventionism into markets by preventing anti-competitive collaboration of enterprise ownership.

The article offers an overview of the competitive impact of the joint purchasing agreements (JPAs) or buying alliances in Europe's food chain. It explores the role of JPAs in the European Union (EU) competition law, case law, and the decisions taken by the European Commission, analyzing whether this offers a ground to pay closer attention to the formation and operation of the large buyer alliances in the grocery retail industry. It also explores how case law and decisions are distributed in the dimensions of buyer power as well as downstream market power.

According to World Travel and Tourism Council estimates, travel and tourism should account for approximately 10.4 percent of global gross domestic product and create nearly 231 million jobs worldwide during 2007. This paper presents an analysis of the performance of the global lodging industry during the year 2007. As such, important lodging industry trends worldwide, including those in North America, mainland Europe, United Kingdom, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions, are better understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the usefulness of the NAIRCU, the 'non-accelerating inflation rate of capacity utilization' as a demand indicator of inflation for eight European countries. So far the NAIRCU has been estimated for the USA only, where it serves as a useful indicator for inflation. In most European countries, deviations from the equilibrium level of capacity utilization influence inflation significantly. Further, the results not only indicate that in more recent periods the NAIRCU has shifted upward, indicating higher efficiency of the production process, but also that confidence intervals have increased over time reducing the usefulness of the NAIRCU somewhat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

199 / EU Defence Ambitions and Capabilities: Can it do better in a more dangerous environment? Leaving aside the US, a natural partner and treaty ally to nearly all EU member states through NATO membership, the EU as a whole is outgunned on a number of indicators by both China and Russia, but EU capacities are nonetheless significant. Europe: Drivers of Strategic Change 186 / 2020-21 Review 189 / Britain and the EU after Brexit: How far is Brexit really "done"? In addition, the rules governing third-party participation are likely to make effective collaboration with non-EU companies, and with EU-based companies controlled by non-EU entities, difficult to achieve, as they either prevent (in the case of non-EU participants) or limit (in the case of entities controlled by non-EU participants) access to EDF funds and classified information related to these projects and control the intel-lectual-property rights generated through collaboration. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper we examine the relationship between consumers' opinions as proxied by a survey-based confidence index and measurable economic variables in four major EC countries. We are particularly interested in the impact of foreign factors, such as the price of oil and the exchange rate. Several studies have attempted to assess the usefulness of the information contained in consumer surveys. Studies by Hymans (1970), Fair (1971), Shapiro (1972), McNeil (1974)for the US and by Vanden Abeele (1983) for the main EC countries have concluded that indexes of consumer sentiment do not contain much useful information since they can be explained by a small number of economic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government systems change at varying speeds. While some countries have dramatically reduced the number of local governments during a short period of time, other countries have seen only incremental change or relative inertia. A number of explanations for structural change have been put forward in the comparative local government literature, but these explanations have to a small extent been tested empirically. This article uses statistical indicators to analyse changes in the local government systems in 17 Western European countries between 2004 and 2014. Some often-cited explanations for what drives structural change receive little support. Still, the article demonstrates that changes tend to occur in situations marked by different combinations of decentralisation, urbanisation, fiscal stress and a recent history of territorial upscaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust links ordinary citizens to the institutions that are intended to represent them, and thereby enhances both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of democratic government. In this article we investigate whether economic performance affects political trust and if the 2007–2008 financial crisis has decreased confidence levels due to the severity of its consequences. We employ multilevel modeling to analyze data from 25 European countries taken from the European Social Survey, combined with economic indicators from the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund. Our results show that economic performance is an important decider of people's levels of trust. We are also able to conclude that the financial crisis has reduced citizen's trust in political institutions in those countries where the crisis has had a severe impact on the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Market deregulation has been integral to economic globalization, but we do not know very much about the comparative dimension of reform, i.e., the performance of liberal and co-ordinated market economies. Co-ordinated market economies are often assumed to perform poorly in deregulation reform, while such reform is path-dependent to the liberal market economy model. The article compares the trajectory of market deregulation in these different ‘varieties of capitalism’. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's ‘product market regulation indicators', the analysis shows that co-ordinated market economies have implemented more extensive deregulation than have the liberal market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the degree of price-integration of equity indices between the major markets of Africa, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa with the European markets of London and Paris. Vector Autoregressive and Autoregressive Distributed Lag methods reveal that African markets are largely price-segmented. The only markets that are price-integrated have shared economic and financial institutions, such as Namibia and South Africa, and Egypt, Tunisia and France. The evidence suggests that development policy should be focussed on enhancing existing institutions rather than embarking prematurely on regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses how the competition agencies (CAs) measure their effectiveness in Europe. It mentions that CAs can user their participation in organization such as the International Competition Network (ICN) to determine the institutional and performance characteristics of effective CAs. It suggests that long-term investments in capability increase the agency's capacity to select and execute programs that improve economic performance. It discusses the specific characteristics of good agency process such as the formulation and clear communication of well-specified goals to agency staff and external groups.

This article examines the association between one of the most basic institutional forms, the family, and a series of demographic, educational, social, and economic indicators across regions in Europe. Using Emmanuel Todd's classification of medieval European family systems, we identify potential links between family types and regional disparities in household size, educational attainment, social capital, labor participation, sectoral structure, wealth, and inequality. The results indicate that medieval family structures seem to have influenced European regional disparities in virtually every indicator that we considered. That these links remain, despite the influence of the modern state and population migration, suggests that such structures are either extremely resilient or in the past were internalized within other social and economic institutions as they developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates to what extent business cycles co-move in the four largest euro area economies, using a large-scale database of nonstationary series for the euro area over the 1980:Q1 to 2003:Q4 period. We apply the methodology proposed by Bai (2004) and Bai and Ng (2004) to construct a coincident indicator of the euro area business cycle, based on the first common factor estimated from a dynamic factor analysis on the level of the variables. The indicator appears to be significantly close, from a statistical point of view, to the level of the euro area GDP in the most recent period. We also show that national developments are increasingly correlated to the indicator at the business cycle frequencies. We finally suggest a decomposition of GDP growth along the different stationary and nonstationary factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the beginning of the 1990s the insurance markets of the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe were highly concentrated, which means that one or only a few state-owned insurance companies operated on the market, with the market share of the leading company higher than 90%. At the beginning of the 1990s private investors entered the majority of economic sectors, including the insurance market. The entry of new companies has led to a decrease in concentration, i.e. to increased competition. This article analyses the dynamics of concentration of the insurance industry, and seeks to determine the impact of the leading insurance company on the development of the insurance market. Furthermore, the article examines the influence of the purchasing power of the population, measured by gross domestic product per capita, on the development of the insurance market and considers the potential scenario of development of the insurance market in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the regional dimensions of the economic growth problem in Europe. Impact of economic and monetary integration on regional inequalities; Identification of the geographical polarization of incomes; Expansion of the market and trade and from increasing integration of the economy.

Comparative analysis of the European Union (EU) and the Central and East European countries (CEECs) using economic indicators reveals a complex picture of similarities and differences. In some respects, the difference between the European south and north is greater than the difference between the EU and CEECs. The capabilities of human capital in CEECs are not far behind the EU and are above those of south Europe. Orientation toward an open economy (globalization) is present more in some CEECs than in most EU countries. CEECs, in general, invest less in research. Governments are still heavily involved in research funding in countries with a tradition in strong central planning systems and a large number of researchers. In other CEECs, business enterprises are becoming more involved in research funding but on average are still far below the European Union. The CEECs lag substantially behind EU countries in implementing new communication and information technology. These countries are not taking advantage of the new cycle of innovation. As a consequence, the technological gap is growing. The ability to implement and adapt to change depends on social capital. Some dimensions of the value system indicate the prevalence of a modernistic orientation in CEECs. But, because the communist system was dysfunctional, especially in relation to the market and democracy, social capital rapidly replaced the imperfection of the formal system and social networks. Trust became more important than the law and regulatory institutional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the factors that may have contributed to the phenomenon of interregional variations in economic development and growth in India in the 20th century. Emphasis on the need to sustain economic growth in regions which were bypassed for two decades; Information on India's poorest regions; Comparison between the regional disparity in India and European countries.

We investigate the usefulness of the European Commission confidence indicators for forecasting real GDP growth rates in the short run is investigated in selected euro area countries (Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands) which account for almost 90% of the euro area. A linear relationship between real GDP and confidence indicators is estimated and the forecasting performance of the estimated models compared with a benchmark ARIMA model. It is generally found that confidence indicators can be useful for forecasting real GDP growth rates in the short-run in most of the above-mentioned countries. Notwithstanding some signs of instability in the relation between confidence indicators and real GDP, improvements with the use of time-varying parameter models appear to be fairly limited but confirm the findings obtained with constant parameter techniques. The results obtained are robust to a wide range of variant tests implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]