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Abstract: Executive summary: As to the alignment of “Horizon 2020”, ir is a more integrated approach to European science policy than expressed in the proposals previously drafted, and specifically considers: (i) promoting excellence in Science, (ii) establishing a sound industrial leadership and (iii) expressing an ambition to address current and future societal challenges. In this respect, the quest for a knowledge-based economy in Europe should result in proposals for industrial and employment policies that will consolidate the major European advantages in the biomedical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Horizon 2020 also provides the possibility of adopting a more flexible and simplified management route to drive European research through innovation, research and development. What should be additionally considered? Unmet medical needs, under pressure from demographic changes, await the generation of new medicines and health technologies which will evolve into a driver for a unified European policy. We believe that this should be focused on harnessing pharmaceutical knowledge for clinical use, as part of a response to accommodate patient needs and economic growth based on a robust, scientific approach. The bolder ambition for European research is to unlock key bottlenecks currently undermining European competitiveness. The historical lack of an appropriate business/innovation environment with reduced access to adequate risk finance instruments has severed the path for economic growth and industrial development. These issues are of critical importance and a solution is urgently needed to foster translation from the university to the healthcare sector through the generation and support of start-ups, spin-offs, university-industry consortia, and other platforms, which support translational research. The ultimate goal is implementation of holistic programmes: the ‘bench to bedside’ paradigm of medicines and other healthcare products. The European Research Council supports the basic biomedical research programmes of long term importance for development of medicines; however, fundamental research initiatives on medicines development will not be competitive in such an environment. In order to strengthen the long term outlook, we must foster innovative research within the university sector, EUFEPS proposes that a fund for such research be set up within Horizon 2020, which would be open for individual research groups and which would include Public–Public Partnerships (complementing already existing Public–Private Partnerships). How do we look for implementation? There is an established research agenda for medicines research that is globally focused, and which incorporates a cooperative model between universities and industry, facilitating integration of complex technologies. Regulatory Science will play an important role in this integration. This agenda uses tools arising from systems approaches (including discovery with systems biology and also systems pharmacology) and has the potential for providing better knowledge management, as well as technological innovation (including manufacturing). It also addresses the drive towards personalised medicines and can, with support from both public and private sectors, foster translation of knowledge to new technologies and from that, to new medicinal products and complex integrated systems. This is a part of a strategy capable of solving unmet medical needs, which would increase the quality of life of patients suffering from chronic and debilitating diseases. The instruments to allow the development of a research agenda should strengthen existing partnerships such as the IMI-JU model; allow for the creation of European-network infrastructures that can bring together existing competences with adequate European coordination, thus promoting advanced training and continuous professional development for the pharmaceutical sciences. This will be the cornerstone of a knowledge management strategy, providing education and training for healthcare professionals and scientists. A key role for EUFEPS is to help the research community to embrace these new holistic policies applied to the spectrum of pharmaceutical, medical and cognate sciences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The EU has committed to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Reaching this objective requires massive changes in the region. The biggest challenge is that the green transition happens without sacrificing economic progress and guaranteeing justice and inclusiveness. This pledge implies that every country be capable of addressing the trade-offs between targets while remaining committed towards the common decarbonisation goal. Our paper analyses the success with which countries are carrying out the energy transition. We propose an enhanced hyperbolic distance function and a stochastic frontier analysis approach to model the joint attainment of economic development, environmental sustainability, and energy equity. We apply our model to an unbalanced panel dataset of 29 European countries for the period 2005–2018. Our estimates show that the average performance of the economies has improved over time. The results also highlight the pivotal role of a sustainable economic development with clean energies for both slashing CO 2 emissions and fostering energy equity. Moreover, we find convergence in countries' performance, being this convergence slightly higher for the EU-15 countries compared to the rest. Finally, we show that a higher share of renewable energy sources helps countries that are lagging behind to reach their optimal performance level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European policy makers have shown a keen interest in the success of 5G because ubiquitous and high capacity electronic communication infrastructure is recognized as a cornerstone of economic development and productivity growth. The second generation, GSM, is considered the leading example, reaching its peak of deployment in 2015 with 3.83 billion subscribers served by over 700 operators in 219 countries and territories. With 5G rapidly shaping up in the R&D and standardization environments, and a call for leadership with 5G in Europe by policy makers, it is timely to investigate what lessons can be learned from the success of 2G that can be applied to 5G. More broadly, this calls for research into the commonalities and differences between successive generations of mobile technology, their introduction and the market adoption that followed. This also calls for an investigation into the possibility of multiple futures of 5G and how that impacts the opportunity for leadership. As one future may be more desirable than the other, depending on the perspective of the actor involved, a policy debate will be required to determine the most desirable future. As well as a discussion of the policy and regulatory actions required to enable a particular future. Hence, the two-part research question being addressed in this paper is: What explains the success of 2G-GSM and how can it be applied to create success with 5G in the European Union ? To respond to the research question this paper first identifies the leadership lessons to be drawn from the success of 2G-GSM in relation to its successors 3G and 4G. Secondly, the contribution describes two stylized images of possible futures of 5G, called “Evolution” and “Revolution”, as input to the policy debate on the options for leadership with 5G. These images reflect two extremes in terms of possible futures of 5G. “Evolution” follows the pattern of previous generations and current trends. “Revolution” represents a clear break with these trends and a path towards leadership with 5G, as it exploits the opportunities of standardized APIs for service creation, being enabled by network virtualization as an architectural foundation of 5G. These open and uniformly applied APIs allow the market entry of a multitude of virtual mobile network operators (VMNOs) serving particular industry verticals or economic sectors with tailored feature sets and qualities of services. They allow a market momentum to be built that constitutes leadership with 5G in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the transition to the market economy the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries were concerned with the creation of the legal and institutional framework for environmental preservation as an important component of sustainable development strategy, in line with the EU accession requirements. Nevertheless, without denying the efforts to create a real environmental culture, the economic and social problems like production decline and growing unemployment made public concern shift away to more immediately stressful issues such as real wages or job insecurity. Later on, in the post-accession period the Cohesion Policy created a more stimulating framework for dealing with the sustainable development objectives. In the current programme period, 2014–2020, in accordance with the “Europe 2020” Strategy, the sustainable growth is closely related to smart and inclusive growth within the strategic objective of the Cohesion Policy, offering each member state multiple instruments and funding opportunities for complying with sustainability criteria. They are particularly supportive for CEE countries, whose internal resources are below the required levels in this respect. This paper proposes a spotlight on the sustainability issues in CEE cities, considered development vehicles for the regions they belong to, and thus major participants in the efforts to promote economic growth and diminish interregional disparities. An evolutionary perspective is applied, aiming to reveal how these cities responded to sustainability requirements in both pre- and post-accession periods. In addition, we test the variance of green performance between different groups of CEE cities (Baltic, Central or East European cities; large, medium and small cities; growing, stagnating and declining cities). In the final part of the paper, a special emphasis is placed on the policies able to create synergies between smart specialization and sustainable development approaches. To this end, the paper investigates how sustainable and smart growth policies complement each other in supporting eco-innovation, eco-system services and resource efficiency at the city level in CEE countries. Meanwhile, the paper looks for those smart policy mixes that rationally combine knowledge-based investments in areas with competitive advantages and coherent support measures for a greener economy, as a pre-requisite for territorial cohesion and competitiveness in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a large number of railway development projects in Europe and worldwide, which once completed will be serving rail passengers of the future, this paper aims to take a step back and evaluate current railway systems performance. The objectives are to compare statistical data on various passenger-related parameters of the railway system in a number of selected European countries and draw conclusions on the level of their performance when compared to the European average. Analyses of publically available statistical data, extracted from the Eurostat service at a European level will allow for a comparison of various indicators which influence the performance of the railway systems from an infrastructure and operational perspectives. The analyses will also allow identifying key performance indicators for the accurate assessment of the rail systems. The paper will highlight case studies for various parameters which are important to stakeholders of the railways, including infrastructure managers, rail operators, policy makers and the end users. This knowledge will be to the benefit of today’s railway industry as well as the rail systems of the future, as it will show trends drew upon existing data which might continue in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2020 Europe has to increase its energy efficiency and share of renewables in 20%. However, even accomplishing these challenging objectives Europe will be effectively wasting energy as we demonstrate in this paper. In our way towards a fully renewable scenario, we need at least to stop wasting energy in order to guarantee the energy supply needed for growth and comfort. We waste energy when we employ more primary energy than the final energy we ultimately use and this excess cannot be reutilized. In this paper we propose the WE (wasted energy) as a novel metric to measure the performance of energy systems and set up appropriate targets. The WE incorporates information about energy efficiency and renewable sources. Unlike European legislation, the WE considers them in an integrated way. This approach will help Member States to exploit their intrinsic capabilities and design their optimum strategy to reach their objectives. Using the information in Eurostat, we calculate the WE of Member States in EU-28 and their evolution. We also analyze illustrative examples to highlight strategies to reduce the WE, study the connection between economic development and WE, and provide a tool to diagnose the potential of improvement of an energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is expected to bring disruptive changes. These changes will be much more pervasive than any previous introduction of new mobile 'generations' and they are expected to influence the whole economy. For this reason, the global rush for 5G technology is not only considered crucial in economic or technological terms, but also for its implications in terms of geopolitics, international policy and national security. This paper presents an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. The period under investigation is from 2010 to 2019, and the data are extracted from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. The analysis shows how the technologies and the specialisations needed to develop 5G are in the hands of a few countries around the globe, and how single European countries, taken in isolation, are not among those leading players. However, Europe, considered as a whole, competes well with the US and Asia in terms of patented innovations, suggesting the economic and strategic relevance of strengthening cooperation within the EU. • The debate regarding the 5G development, implementation and disruptiveness is gathering growing attention. • The paper present an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. • We study the technological complexity of the 5G ecosystem and the related implications for competition and innovation. • There are few countries at the frontier of the technological development of 5G and lagging countries will face many difficulties to cover the gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its rapid growth and increasing adoption, big data is producing a substantial impact in society. Its usage is opening both opportunities such as new business models and economic gains and risks such as privacy violations and discrimination. Europe is in need of a comprehensive strategy to optimise the use of data for a societal benefit and increase the innovation and competitiveness of its productive activities. In this paper, we contribute to the definition of this strategy with a research roadmap to capture the economic, social and ethical, legal and political benefits associated with the use of big data in Europe. The present roadmap considers the positive and negative externalities associated with big data, maps research and innovation topics in the areas of data management, processing, analytics, protection, visualisation, as well as non-technical topics, to the externalities they can tackle, and provides a time frame to address these topics in order to deliver social impact, skills development and standardisation. Finally, it also identifies what sectors will be most benefited by each of the research efforts. The goal of the roadmap is to guide European research efforts to develop a socially responsible big data economy, and to allow stakeholders to identify and meet big data challenges and proceed with a shared understanding of the societal impact, positive and negative externalities and concrete problems worth investigating in future programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The impact of economic growth on health outcomes has generated various conflicting results in recent years, particularly with the emergence of cardiovascular disease as one of the most salient global health issues. This paper looks at the relationship between economic development and health outcomes. We first estimate an empirical model using data on annual cardiovascular disease mortality in a panel of 27 European countries, over the period 2003 to 2014, together with per capita GDP levels in each country. We also include a number of additional determinants of health outcomes as prescribed by the literature, including various socio-economic, lifestyle and contextual variables. The results show that there is a statistically-significant inverted U-shaped relationship, whereby as income increases mortality rates first rise, before declining at subsequent levels of development. This trajectory persists even after the inclusion of the other determinants of health, as well as other robustness checks. We then seek to explain the persistence of the inverted U-shaped income-mortality relationship using a microeconomic model of consumer choice, with our findings suggesting that this relationship is consistent with a scenario of increasing returns to scale from healthcare investment. The results emphasise the importance of investment in the latest healthcare technologies and continued improvements to public healthcare systems, particularly within developing countries, in conjunction with efforts to boost economic growth. Highlights • Inverted U-shaped relationship between cardiovascular mortality and GDP per capita. • Results robust to inclusion of various control variables and confounders. • Relationship consistent with increasing returns from healthcare spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic developments experienced within the countries of European Union (EU) in the recent years have reported impacts on road safety levels, especially in serious injuries and traffic fatalities. In order to support the road safety strategies of the EU countries, it is essential to investigate the association of road safety levels with economic, social and demographic factors and finally comparatively evaluate the performance of each country. This paper aims at analyzing the road safety performance of EU-23 countries over a decade (2005–2014) considering their socio-economic and demographic background. For doing so, two distinctive models were applied, in particular, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and DEA-Cross Efficiency Model (DEA-CEM), both suitably adapted to the road safety particularities. Moreover, the concept of road safety evaluation is performed by using comparable road safety indicators, namely, mortality rate and fatality risk. The results of this study contribute to the decision/policy making agenda from the perspective of evaluating road safety performance levels by using short-term and long-term road safety targets. Additionally, an unbiased ‘picture’ of the countries’ road safety performance over a period of 10 years is provided, accompanied with information on the intra-period countries’ efficiency of their road safety targets. The proposed intra-period analysis has useful practical and methodological implications since it is able to expose the evolution of road safety levels among the countries, besides a static overall picture. Finally, this study offers valuable insights on the cross-evaluation of road safety levels among the EU countries by considering a target-setting approach for each of them before and during a turbulent financial period for Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy use has gained increasing attention when assessing economic growth and convergence of countries. Indeed, recent policy and regulatory implementations require a reduction of non-renewable energy use (to decrease greenhouse gas emissions) and a rise in renewable energy use. As such, many studies have tried to understand the contribution of energy on growth and convergence. In this paper, we propose to use a production-frontier approach to tackle this question. The distinguishing features of our methodology are: no assumptions about the growth process are required, and it isolates the impact of non-renewable and renewable energy. We apply our methodology to the case of the European countries from 1995 to 2015. We find that renewable energy changes cause a divergence, while non-renewable energy changes cause a convergence. We also find that the impact of both types of energy on economic growth, while small, is not negligible and increases with time. Next, we identify two groups: Eastern and central Europe and EU12, and show that the impact of both types of energy is different for each group. Finally, we relate our findings to several variables. This last part reveals important patterns and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper shows how stochastic frontier panel techniques can be used by economic regulators to benchmark regulated firms against international best practice. We utilise a unique, panel dataset of European rail infrastructure managers (1996–2006). A time-varying inefficiency model, with firm-specific time paths for inefficiency, is adopted. The results were used in the 2008 regulatory review of the British infrastructure manager, Network Rail, and showed that the company faced an efficiency gap of around 40% against European best practice – in line with engineering-based evidence. More widely, the paper highlights the advantages of the inefficiency specification adopted for use in economic regulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper proposes an overarching review of national municipal waste management systems and waste-to-energy as an important part of it in the context of circular economy in the selected countries in Europe. The growth of population and rising standards of living means that the consumption of goods and energy is increasing. On the one hand, consumption leads to an increase in the generation of waste. On the other hand, the correlation between increased wealth and increased energy consumption is very strong as well. Given that the average heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW) is approximately 10 MJ/kg, it seems logical to use waste as a source of energy. Traditionally, waste-to-energy (WtE) has been associated with incineration. Yet, the term is much broader, embracing various waste treatment processes generating energy (for instance, in the form of electricity and/or heat or producing a waste-derived fuel). Turning waste into energy can be one key to a circular economy enabling the value of products, materials, and resources to be maintained on the market for as long as possible, minimising waste and resource use. As the circular economy is at the top of the EU agenda, all Member States of the EU (including the EEA countries) should move away from the old-fashioned disposal of waste to a more intelligent waste treatment encompassing the circular economy approach in their waste policies. Therefore, the article examines how these EU policies are implemented in practice. Given that WtE traditionally is attached to the MSW management and organisation, the focus of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to identify the different practices of municipal waste management employed in selected countries and their approaches in embracing the circular economy and, secondly, the extent to which WtE technologies play any role in this context. The following countries, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK were chosen to depict a broad European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-R&D innovation activities account for a significant portion of innovation efforts carried out across very heterogeneous economies in Europe. However, to incorporate them into economic models is not always straightforward. Moreover, relying only on R&D data does not capture well innovation in the services sector. To counter these problems, this paper builds an augmented macro-theoretical growth model where, besides R&D, non-R&D innovation activities play a key role as main drivers of TFP. The model is estimated for a sample of EU-26 countries over the period 2004–2008, showing that the distinction between R&D and non-R&D innovation activities is significant for a number of different issues. First, we find both R&D and non-R&D to be statistically significant and economic important in technological catch-up. Second, there is a differential sizable impact of R&D and non-R&D; the impact of R&D on TFP growth is found to be twice as big as that of non-R&D. And third, the two types of innovation cannot strictly been seen as complementary, at least for the case of countries with high R&D intensities or high non-R&D intensities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) assure economic growth in Europe. Generally, many SMEs are struggling to survive in an ongoing global recession and are often reluctant to release or pay for staff training. Cloud Computing offers many opportunities and could help companies to improve their business and use technology more efficiently In this chapter, learning methods particularly E-Learning in European SMEs is described in part 1. In this paper a short presentation of Cloud Computing and advantages for SMEs (part 1), the objectives of the European project IN-CLOUD (part 2) and the work in progress within this project are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the analysis of regional economic development in Europe. Specifically, it examines the extent to which the performance and characteristics of higher education systems (HESs) influence regional economic development. The analysis employs data at the regional level, examining 649 NUTS-3 in 29 European countries, from 2014 to 2016. The empirical analysis, based on an original dataset that we developed, employs a novel methodological strategy that combines a traditional econometric approach with random forest. The findings detect the existence of nonlinear relationships between regional GDP per capita and HES indicators, which could have been overlooked by previous studies in the literature. Furthermore, the empirical results demonstrate the importance of comprehensively modelling the diversity of HESs, since distinct characteristics and performance can contribute differently to the economy of the regions. In particular, the most important factors for regional economic development are the size of HESs, the internationalisation of the students and research productivity. Finally, this paper provides useful insights for policymakers by suggesting new instruments for driving and fostering the economic development of their regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the changes which are taking place in air transport for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia in the context of liberalisation. It also attempts to identify the common and specific factors that influence these processes in different markets of the region. The indicators for the development of the aviation market were designed using, among other things, statistics describing the infrastructure facilities and the level of activity in the market. Composite indicators and the weights for their individual components were constructed using a Multidimensional Comparative Analysis. The conditions under which changes were taking place in Central and Eastern European Countries were described with the help of selected socio-economic panel data. Finally, One-Way Fixed Effects and Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) models describing the development of the aviation markets were estimated. The adopted procedure made it possible to identify the most important common and specific factors that exerted the greatest influence on the situation of air transport in CEE Countries. The very initiation of the liberalisation process undoubtedly had a significantly beneficial effect on the development of route networks and aviation activities as broadly understood. However, the pace of change depended not only on the progress of liberalisation itself, but also on the diverse socio-economic conditions in the individual countries. As a result of the analysis, the markets were divided into two separate groups, which in many respects are distinctly different from each other. The results of the estimation models also showed that there are strong unobservable determinants of development which are specific to individual countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the past two decades, ground source heat pump (GSHP) system has made good impact on energy saving in the Western and European countries in heating/cooling and industrial applications. Their potential for reduction in CO2 emission has been very well utilized by these countries to contribute to a green environment. In this paper an attempt is made to give an overview about how India can benefit from this technology. The economic growth of India has huge impact on energy and environment of the country. Though Indian building sector is growing in multifold, still there is a demand for electricity to meet the needs of people. Any technology to reduce energy consumption will have great impact on people's life and economy. In this way a study has been carried out to estimate, to what extend the ground source heat pump technology can help India to reduce its energy demand and also save the environment. This study covers 10 provinces of northern part of India which require both heating and cooling. Based on the topography of the states, they are classified into severe winter states and moderate winter states for heating requirement. During winter period the conventional electric heaters consume electricity between 1416 and 7085GW annually and for the same heating load GSHP consumes only 471–1416GW. In summer months the electricity consumed by conventional air conditioner ranges between 5506 and 27,532GW and by GSHP it varies from 4811 to 14,440GW. The annual CO2 emission by the conventional systems used for heating and cooling vary between 5270 and 26,352millionkg of CO2. In the case of GSHP CO2 emission lies between 4022 and 12,071millionkg. It is estimated that by employing GSHP technology India can save annually a minimum electricity of 1639–18,700GW and CO2 emission of 1.3–14.2 million tons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sustainability of fiscal and budgetary policies and therefore the sustainability of public debt is an intensely debated issue which has a particular importance in the public decision making. In Europe, the problem of sustainability public debt has become a subject of public interest after the introduction of single currency in the European Union. The growth of indebtedness of the member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union has raised extensive debate on the sustainable level of public debt. Hence, the paper has the purpose to analyze the sustainability of public debt in the member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Delicate and difficult at the same time, financial and monetary fields have always attracted attention of researchers worldwide. One of the challenges of contemporary capitalism, financial liberalization, is a process that can bring enormous benefit, but it can pose serious obstacles to development and economic prosperity. In this paper, we propose to analyze the impact of liberalization on bankin g system from emerging countries. The necessity to study and knowledge both the process itself and its effects on financial markets came as a result of a small number of studies and the inconclusive results regarding the impact of financial liberalization on developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Than rejected, financial liberalization must be accompanied by an increase in prudential policy. Too rapid liberalization in a country does not mean speed problems in an absolute sense, but in a relative sense: in many cases instability occurred because of the difference between impressive speeds of financial liberalization and very slow adjustment of the prudential provisions, banking and financial regulations, respectively monetary policy actions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents 5-yearly data on the height of young adult men in 15 Western European countries for birth cohorts from the middle of the 19th to the end of the 20th century. The results indicate that from the 1870s to the 1970s average height increased by around 11cm, or more than 1cm per decade. The main finding is that for the northern and middle European groups of countries the gains in height were most rapid in the period 1911–15 to 1951–55, a period that embraced two World Wars and the Great Depression but also witnessed advances in public health and hygiene. For the southern countries growth was fastest in the period 1951–55 to 1976–80. These findings suggest that advances in height were determined not only by income and living standards but also by a variety of other socioeconomic trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rapid emergence of the European Union (EU) as a leader in global environmental politics has led many scholars to argue in favour of the EU being a ‘normative power’ in international relations. This paper critically examines the EU''s biofuels policy and evaluates whether its attempts to lead by example and shape international practice in this field could support such arguments. Europe''s biofuel policies are evaluated through a sustainable development lens, so as to determine the extent to which it has embraced a holistic approach to sustainability. While not dismissing that the identity of the EU is indeed an explanatory factor and that normative intentions may well be regarded as a motivating force, this study argues that an interest-based perspective on international environmental regulation offers a supplementary view of how an actor''s preferences for an international regime are shaped. By erecting barriers aimed at shielding its own inefficient domestic biofuels production the EU is in essence placing trade competitiveness and economic growth above environmental protection, thus permitting sustainability concerns to be addressed only in part. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Despite increased efficiency in the use of natural resources, the use of these resources continues to increase in most societies. This paper examines the discrepancy between the potential decrease of use of natural resources, as an effect of increased efficiency, and actual use. During the period 1960–2002, this difference was found to grow faster in the USA than the mean for six West European countries. Possible reasons for this difference between the two regions are analysed. To reduce the anthropogenic flows of energy and material, and the consequent deleterious effects on the biosphere, it will become necessary to adapt consumption to degree of efficiency in the use of natural resources. Based on the comparison between the two regions, some economic aspects of this issue are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper addresses the question whether public finance reform can affect trend growth in the EU-15. Focusing on time series patterns, we investigate whether there have been persistent trends in economic growth and fiscal variables over the last 40 years. In addition, we estimate a distributed lag model, which 1) indicates that government size measured either with total expenditure or revenue shares, government consumption and direct taxation negatively affect growth rates of GDP per capita, while public investment has a positive impact, and 2) provides robust evidence that distortionary taxation affects growth in the medium-term through its impact on the accumulation of private capital. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the relationship between military expenditure and growth among the EU15 members using co-integration and causality tests for the period 1961–2000. Although the results reported herein do not reveal a uniformity among the 15 countries, the apparent prevalence of the direction of causality from growth to military expenditure as well as the absence of the reverse causal ordering may be an indication that an important number of governments in the European Union (EU) make defence spending policy decisions based on the state of their economy with the concomitant implications for the objective of a Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]