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This paper marks the changes that have taken place in the Senegalese higher education system. As Senegalese citizens and leaders have worked diligently to improve their economy and society as a whole, they have experienced a great deal of obstacles in moving forward. Throughout this process, education has been an important aspect to improving the economic and social development of the country. Included in this economic, social, and educational overhaul, higher education was a component that required a great deal of work. In order to contend in the global society, the higher education system needed to be reformed. This paper included a discussion of the reformation process of Senegal's higher education from the French model at the heart of its inception to the adoption of the Bologna process. This process has allowed higher education in Senegal to become better with time and grow in its success.

Water scarcity is a growing concern across the globe due to climate change and demands for increased economic development. This paper analyses the relationship between economic development and freshwater abstraction in order to investigate its European impact. The analysis focuses on a total of 19 European countries, including 18 EU member states and one candidate, from 2007 to 2018. Using a panel dataset, the impact of a diverse selection of indicators of economic development (per capita GDP, the Human Development Index - HDI, water productivity and volume of international trade) on freshwater abstraction, our analysis finds that all explanatory variables are significant for cross-country variations except for international trade. To maintain scope, the analysis is limited to economic-development indicators themselves, excluding the effects of climate change and the availability of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines the differences in economic performance across European regions? In addressing this question, this paper takes inspiration from two different approaches. One approach highlights the role of capability-building, of a technological or social nature, while another perspective emphasizes the potential advantages of proximity and, hence, a relatively diversified economic structure, for regional economic performance. The paper argues that the impacts of capability-building and diversification on regional economic development need to be assessed jointly. Using information for 261 regions at NUTS2 level in 27 European countries in the 2000s, novel data sources are exploited to construct measures of technological and social capabilities, which are combined with indicators of related and unrelated variety in the analysis of regional economic dynamics. The results suggest that capability-building play a key role in regional economic development while the results for diversification are more mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Economics / Gospodarka Narodowa is the property of SGH Warsaw School of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

If market economies are to emerge from the ruins of the Soviet empire, people need training in almost everything. Efforts are being made in the areas of management, service, accounting, and police work. (Author/JOW)

This paper examines the importance of trade openness for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, using a sample of 36 developing economies for the period 1990-2008. It provides a direct test of causality between FDI inflows, trade openness and other key variables in developing regions of the world: Latin America, Asia, Africa, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Eastern Europe. Trade openness is measured by using eight different indicators. The main empirical findings of the panel regression analysis reveal that in the long run, trade openness contributes positively to the inflow of FDI in developing economies.

Social and institutional determinants of economic development are attracting increasing attention among development economists. The present paper analyses the impact of macro-level social capital and related social factors on economic development in 34 European countries. Macro-level social capital comprises different aspects of institutional quality and is closely related to income distribution and social cohesion. We used principal component analysis to group initially selected social determinants of economic development into three components (human and social capital, income equality, and redistribution), which altogether describe 64.4% of the variation in initial variables. The following regression analysis proved that all these components have a positive effect on economic development, measured by the human development index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, usage and skills on the export and import of goods and services in the region of South-East Europe (SEE) by applying gravity models to bilateral trade flows through the panel data analysis. The results show that GDP per capita and Internet usage have a significant positive impact on import, and in addition, the digital infrastructure and digital skills have a positive, but small impact on export. Distance has a negative impact on trade. These countries faced relatively poor development and usage of the ICT sector, which indicates unexplored potential which could be used to improve international trade if exploited by businesses, government and households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two aspects related to private equity investments in Europe. First, we will present the evolution of private equity investments across European countries during the last crisis. Second, the paper will analyse and identify the main determinants of the European private equity market, using an empirical panel analysis. The empirical model includes many of the determinants already tested in previous studies (GDP growth, Market Capitalization, Research and Development Expenditures, Interest rates, etc.) and also new variables such as productivity and corruption index which we consider important factors in explaining the evolution of private equity investments in Europe. The present research paper follows the equilibrium model of private equity investments (Gompers and Lerner 1998, Jeng and Wells 2000, Romain and de La Potteria 2004, Félix 2007). We will use aggregated data from European private equity market during 2000-2013, as well as macroeconomic data, in order to estimate a panel data model with fixed and random effects. This paper will also run the Hausman specification test in order to compare the consistency of fixed effects models and random effects models. Our results confirm existent hypotheses regarding the importance of some determinants on the evolution of private equity investments in Europe. However, in the context of the last crisis new factors emerged as important for the private equity market in Europe such as productivity or corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on several information resources related to global economic crisis. A paper by Richard King and Caroline Sweetm discusses the relationship between recession and gender inequalities. Another paper by Rania Antonopoulos also focuses on the impact of financial crisis on the society. Another paper discusses the role of women in economic development in Europe.

This article presents an overview of this issue in relation to the periodical's twentieth anniversary. The author discusses the organization of a anniversary panel in London, England to mark the occasion, and to review articles from the history of the periodical focusing on economic-policy development during these 20 years. The article also provides an introduction to other articles presented in this issue, including one concerning the evolution of exchange-rate management, the effects of government debts on interest rates, and higher education reform in Europe.

Over the last two decades, the phenomenon of technology entrepreneurship has attracted the interest of researchers and policy makers due to its significant impact upon economic progress. Several authors define technology entrepreneurship as the interface of two well-established, but related fields-entrepreneurship and technological innovation. In this vein, technological opportunities can be recognized and exploited by individuals through new venture creation yet equally can be pursued by individuals or groups within existing public or private organizations. This special section provides a more fine grained understanding of technology entrepreneurship by considering interactions across these individual and organizational levels. We present three studies, empirically grounded within the specific and distinct policy contexts of Spain, Italy and the UK, that reveal new insights on the determinants of technology entrepreneurship. In this introductory paper, we consider the themes and contributions of these papers and provide an agenda for further research outlining a greater use of multi-level approaches to further our understanding of technology entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates development and protection of economic competition in Kosovo focusing on the analysis of the level of competition in the Gjilan region. The paper deals with the legislative aspect of competition, the sensitive sectors (banks, insurance, gas stations and pharmacies) where the competitions is damaged and finally are presented the measures on improvement based on the EU practices. Like other economies in transition, the economy in Kosovo the activity for protection of competition is faced with many challenges. Moreover, these challenges result from the fact that Kosovo was the last country in South-eastern Europe to start implementing the principles of a free market economy after 1999. Through a case study, it is attempted to give a realistic picture of the level of competition development, where competition is undermined, general business knowledge about the functioning and enforcement of the law on competition protection, and concrete measures to be taken in order for competition to function based on the rules of the market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the literature on immovable property taxation along two dimensions prevalent in the literature: i) according to the type of real estate over its life-cycle and ii) according to the type of tax. The first strand of the literature agrees that immovable property taxation should be neutral to avoid distortionary behaviour vis-a-vis other assets/consumption goods. However, the neutrality benchmark and hence taxation to be chosen depend on the theoretical view taken. The second strand assesses one type of property tax at a single point in time with respect to the considerations of efficiency, equity, fiscal federalism and political economy. Most of this strand of the literature focuses on recurrent property taxation on residential property, which has a lot of theoretical merits. A key message of both strands is that reaping the theoretical merits of immovable property taxation in practice is hindered by tax design issues and political economy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze and discuss the common force operating for convergence of competition appraisal, the economic development benefits of competition policy, the growing use of economics in European competition law enforcement, and the risks and transaction costs of investing in and operating a business. The paper generates insights about economic competition across the borders of the New Europe, the role of government in promoting competitive rivalry, the importance of competition and competition (antitrust) law-policy in reducing market dominance, and the use of economics in competition law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of key EU Member States to respect the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper analyzes 101 reform proposals presented by professional academic and non-academic economists prior to March 2005, when the Council of the European Union adopted a revised version of the SGP. Roughly four different schools of thought concerning the reform of the SGP are identified. In line with the main findings of the political economy literature, all four schools of thought share the view that in the absence of specific rules fiscal policy would lead to excessive deficits and hence affect the conduct of the common monetary policy. However, beyond this common denominator, there is no consensus on how best to co-ordinate fiscal policy. We present several explanations for the multitude of proposals, the most important being the present lack of a consensus in the economics profession concerning the role of fiscal policy. Economists hold diverging views on the goals, instruments, efficiency and institutions for fiscal policy-making. This state of affairs is in sharp contrast to the case of monetary policy. Also, the euro area is the first case where monetary policy-making is centralized while fiscal policy-making is decentralized to national governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is an attempt to address the advantages and risks connected with the wave of financial globalisation, with a focus on its impact on financial policy in European agriculture. The aim of the paper is to identify the basic conditions of the functioning and change of the financial system of agriculture under the conditions of the globalisation of financial markets. Financial globalisation, also referred to as financial integration or openness, is understood as an increase in global ties and interdependences caused by capital flows. Potentially, globalisation can bring a lot of benefits, which are manifested in an acceleration of economic growth and decreased fluctuation in consumption, which should further improve the level of overall prosperity. On the other hand, however, internationalisation of financial flows entails a range of threats, including the possibility of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence that supports the view that the quality of institutions is an important determinant of long-term growth in European countries. It shows that an initial high government debt level coupled with institutional quality below the EU average tends to be associated with particularly poor longterm real growth performance. Interestingly, the detrimental effect of high debt levels on long-term growth seems cushioned by the presence of very sound institutions. The paper offers some evidence that sound institutions may be particularly important for long-term growth in countries in which the exchange rate tool is no longer available and less so in countries with flexible exchange rate regimes. The empirical findings on the importance of institutions are robust to various measures of output growth, different measures of institutional indicators, different sample sizes, different country groupings and to the inclusions of additional control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a causal relationship between employment rate and economic growth for European Union countries, in general, and produces a structural assessment of employment on the background of labour market dynamics. Economic growth is the key in economic theory and the main source of well-being and quality of life. Since the 2008 financial crisis, most European countries have experienced job shortage and unemployment problem, but today's European economic outlook is strengthening on the bases of a GDP growing momentum. Empirical data shows, regardless the GDP's moderate positive trend, the employment rate did not increase enough. Given this, the present analysis address the question: to what extent the employment rate is affected by economic growth? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Financial & Credit Activity: Problems of Theory & Practice is the property of University of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The particular location of port infrastructure holds characteristics that determine the activity of the port, both with respect to traffic and with respect to implementing competitive strategies; and the efficiency and efficacy of infrastructure depend on the governance systems that regulate the ports. Likewise, the development of port activity echoes in the regional economy as well, hence governance becomes integral to maximizing the impact of ports on their region's economic development. However, the activity of a port transcends the domestic/regional frontiers, as long as the port intends to take part in a global supply chain. Achieving this aim poses a challenge on the authorities that govern port activity, and this challenge needs to be seized when it comes to adjusting the governance to external and internal goals. In the specific case of the analysed ports, the prevailing governance model is known as Landlord, which differs noticeably from port to port. These differences make it possible to distinguish the orientation of European ports from that of the analysed Latin American ports, showing a dissimilar adjustment of the conception of governance that followed objectives that were not simultaneous. The paper draws forth a questioning of the uniqueness of the denomination Landlord and its legitimacy given the new challenges. Furthermore, the paper opens the way to understanding the need to adapt governance to changes, given the examined experiences. The analysis covers the following cases: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the business environment in the Western Balkan countries, the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the European economic development and the innovation activities in Macedonia.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, known as EMIR, adopted on July 4, 2012 as the Regulation on OTC Derivatives, Central Counterparties and Trade Repositories. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains EMIR's clearing and reporting requirements, who is within the scope of those requirements, who is a financial and non-financial counterparty, the clearing thresholds, the clearing and reporting obligations, when those obligations will begin, the risk mitigation obligations, and a range of potential questions anyone trading in OTC derivatives should consider. Findings – EMIR requires that all standardized OTC derivatives contracts be cleared through a central counterparty and reported to a trade repository. Originality/value – The paper provides practical guidance by experienced financial services lawyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the economic crisis that started in the United States in 2007, economic growth has become of great importance for the countries affected by the crisis further to their confrontation with lower growth rates of GDP per capita. At national level, governments are searching for that mix of optimal economic policies that would revive economies on the upward and also sustainable trend. One of the key policies in this regard, especially for the countries in Central and Eastern Europe which intend to adopt the euro currency, is the tax policy. Its main instruments are taxes. In this paper, we pay special attention to these instruments and to the connection that they have with the economic growth. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part presents a few ideas related to the importance of taxes at national level, the second part is an analysis in terms of taxation of the Central and Eastern Europe countries, while the third part consists of a panel-type assessment of the relation between economic growth and taxation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The euro crisis made visible the omitted stage in the European integration process. The EU jumped from the common market straight to the monetary union, neglecting the formation of the economic union. The new EU economic governance is a combination of a vertical shift of competences, i.e. from one level of government to another level, and a horizontal shift of powers and competences, i.e. from elected governments to unelected government bodies entrusted with (parts of) government policies, from discretionary policy towards rules. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new EU economic governance within the conceptual framework of these vertical and horizontal shifts. This two-dimensional approach offers a better analytical tool than the more traditional one-dimensional fiscal federalism approach. In the first part of the paper the focus is on the policy domains that are the objects in the shifting process. Budgetary policy mainly is at stake, but also banking regulation and monetary policy are partly involved. The second part of the paper deals with the relevant aspects of the theories on the division of powers along vertical and horizontal lines. The fiscal federalism approach to vertical separation and the time consistency theory on the horizontal distribution of power are briefly exposed. In the third part the relevant aspects of the new EU economic governance of the European semester, six-pack, two-pack and fiscal compact are presented and put into our framework of vertical and horizontal power shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article charts the changing context of regional economic development and the advancement of both policy thinking and analysis on this issue. The shift away from 'traditional' regional policies, designed to bring about regional convergence, towards new approaches, designed to exploit the economic development potential of regions, is the focus of the article. Specific attention is paid to the emergence of regional development strategies in the process, where 'regions' may be defined functionally rather than administratively. We outline the elements of such strategies—including redefining objectives, new types of interventions, involvement of new actors, and the broadening and integration of regional interventions—which distinguish them from traditional policy and which will determine the degree of success achieved. In conclusion, the paper raises two points of interest, namely the need for more inclusive regional development processes and better implementation of these demanding strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the competitiveness of public transport plays an important role because through public transport, the transport of passengers to schools, public healthcare establishments and work is ensured. In addition, transportation for vulnerable groups of passengers (students, seniors) is provided. On the other hand, public transport constitutes a financial burden on public budgets. The aim of this paper is to point out that public transport does not have an equal status in the transport market within the European Union. In the states of Central and Eastern Europe, public transport had a dominant position in the transport market in the 90s. Nowadays, the market share is declining, particularly in the bus transport, with the rising costs for public budgets regarding an increase in individual motoring. The aim of this paper is to highlight the possibilities of increasing the competitiveness of public transport by integrating different components of public transport. Another aim is to define the possibilities of financing public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers future European growth prospects in the light of a new productivity paradox, namely, the co-existence of a productivity slowdown and exciting new technologies. Several potential explanations are reviewed. It is argued that while some are unpersuasive it is too soon to be sure which carry the most weight. This has the implication that while the slowdown is real, it is not necessarily permanent. A key, hotly disputed issue is the future economic impact of technological progress on which forecasts differ dramatically. Supply-side reform could have a strong positive effect, but this is not likely to happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent of demographic changes in Europe is much more drastic than in the United States. This paper studies the effects of population aging on the interactions between economic growth and living standards in Europe with labor market and pension reform, behavioral adaptations, and international capital flows. Our analysis is based on an overlapping generations model with behavioral reactions to reform which is extended to the multi-country situation typical for Europe. While the negative effects of population aging on growth in Europe can in principle be compensated by reforms and economic adaptation mechanisms, they may be partially offset by behavioral reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen countries from CEE region are analyzed in the paper within the period from 2005 till 2010 with the aim of determining the relation between capital availability and economic growth. Moreover, the analysis uses the correlation and panel regression as main tools for confirming the hypotheses. Furthermore, within the paper financial inclusion and availability of financial services as one of the most important topics within EU are being analyzed. The main focus is on empirically investigated correlation between financial development and faster current and future rates of economic growth, with special focus on physical capital accumulation, and economic efficiency improvements. Finally, there is a link established between the growth of the citizens' wealth and economic development of the country and the availability of bank services and foreign capital inflow as well. Consequently, the obtained results indicate that the effects of world economic crisis influenced the citizen's welfare starting from 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic growth literature suggests that knowledge spillovers are subject to distance decay effects. In this paper the main aim is to provide a theoretical framework and empirical evidence on the role played by other kinds of proximities, namely relational, social and technological proximity, in explaining productivity growth. Using a sample of 249 EU 27 NUTS 2 regions in the period 1990-2004, semiparametric spatial autoregressive models are estimated. Results provide evidence of a positive role of social and relational proximities as important channels of knowledge spillovers, and on the fact that, when simultaneously present, different kinds of proximities generate synergic effects on growth. Resumen La literatura sobre el crecimiento económico sugiere que los spillovers de conocimiento están sujetos a efectos de deterioro por distancia. El objetivo principal de este artículo es proporcionar un marco teórico y pruebas empíricas sobre el papel desempeñado por otros tipos de proximidades (relacional, social y tecnológica), a la hora de explicar el crecimiento de la productividad. Utilizando una muestra de 249 regiones NUTS 2 de la UE 27 para el período 1990-2004, se estiman modelos autorregresivos espaciales semiparamétricos. Los resultados aportan pruebas del papel positivo de las proximidades sociales y relacionales como canales importantes de spillovers de conocimientos, y del hecho de que, cuando se presentan simultáneamente, los diferentes tipos de proximidades generan efectos sinérgicos sobre el crecimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-intensive services (KIS) are assuming an increasing importance in innovation, to such an extent that they have even classified as "key agents" within innovation systems (Fischer, 2001). As one of the major features of KIS is coproduction, location is expected to play a significant role on the effects of KIS on regional innovation systems. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the location of KIS and the innovation performance of the European regions. Starting from the results reached by previous studies: Makun and McPherson (1997) for three New York regions, Muller and Zenker (1998) for five German and French regions, Drejer and Vinding (2003) for Danish urban areas or Simmie and Strambach (2006) for large cities of England and Germany, our aim is to widen the traditional scope of the analysis and evaluate the relationship between location of KIS and innovation performance on an European basis. More concretely we try to show that the spatial concentration of KIS in some regions (and particular in capital cities) contributes to foster innovation. To do so we carry out an exploratory spatial analysis for more than 100 European regions. We take as a proxy for the location of KIS the share of employment in KIS in every region. The results obtained support the hypothesis that KIS exert a positive impact on regional innovation performance, an impact that could spill over into the neighbouring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a spatial neoclassical growth model for a system of N regional economies. Regional output growth is determined by interregional fixed capital relocations which depend on initial factor endowments as well as a region's relative location in space. The dynamics of the model are captured by a Taylor approximation, which provides a testable spatial econometric model specification that is applied for European regions on the NUTS 2 level. Both theoretical and empirical results show how relatively high human capital endowments are beneficial to growth if found within one region, but disadvantageous if found in neighbouring regions. Este artículo proporciona un modelo de crecimiento neo-clásico espacial para un sistema de N economías regionales. El crecimiento del producto regional viene determinado por deslocalizaciones interregionales de capital fijo que dependen de la dotación de factores inicial, así como de la relativa localización espacial de una región. Las dinámicas del modelo son capturadas mediante una aproximación de Taylor, que proporciona una especificación comprobable de modelo econométrico espacial que se aplica a regiones europeas a nivel NUTS 2. Tanto los resultados teoréticos como los empíricos muestran como las dotaciones relativamente elevadas de capital humano son ventajosas para el crecimiento cuando se concentran en una región, pero una desventaja si se encuentran en regiones vecinas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform and development of the financial sector was one of the most significant challenges that the former socialist countries faced during their transition to a market economy. At the start of this transition, their financial system was underdeveloped and centralised (monobank), where the central bank of each economy also functioned as a commercial bank. The restructuring, integration and development of the financial sector to enhance viability and enable it to respond to new demands was imperative, particularly for economic growth and the convergence of these economies with the developed economies of the region. This process of financial integration suffered a powerful shock with the economic crisis transmitted to the region in 2009. The initial aim of this paper is to highlight the problems created after the global economic crisis affecting the financial institutions of the former socialist countries of South-eastern Europe, as well as the problems that already existed, though not apparent, and were nevertheless exacerbated by the outbreak of the crisis. An attempt to investigate the role of the financial sector, dominated by the banking sector, follows, with regard to achieving macroeconomic equilibrium among the economies of the countries in the region and the potential for sustaining it in future as part of a path to growth. To fully satisfy this goal, we propose that it is preferable to avoid a linear approach to the issue, abandoning equilibrium theory to adopt an analysis inspired by the method of cumulative causation, based on the work of Nicholas Kaldor. Our analysis allows us to postulate that, in a post-crisis period, conditions prevail for the potential appearance of future structural impasses of a cumulative nature, which could lead to a systemic crisis and leave the development process of the region's economies exposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate income distributions in four European countries (Austria, Italy, Spain and Hungary) using two complementary approaches: a standard approach based on reported incomes in survey data, and a microsimulation approach, where taxes and benefits are simulated. These two approaches may be expected to generate slightly different results, particularly in respect of individuals on lower incomes, because benefit receipts tend to be under-reported in survey data, and over-estimated in microsimulation procedures. However, we find that the two approaches do in fact produce reasonably consistent results, in terms of both inequality measures and poverty rates. To the extent that the results differ, we explore the reasons why these differences arise, and suggest directions for future research, in which each approach may inform improvements in the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper aims at providing evidence on the impact on employment of outward foreign direct investment, particularly from developed countries into low-wage countries, which is a major concern in many developed countries. Design/methodology/approach – The effects of foreign production undertaken by Belgian foreign-oriented companies on employment in Belgium are investigated by performing econometric tests for complementarity or substitution between home and affiliate employment. The data are from the Amadeus database and consist of a sample of 254 Belgian parent companies with foreign affiliates in low-wage and other high-wage European countries during the 1999-2007 period. Findings – The results show that, given the size of parent production in the home country, Belgian multinational enterprises with foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries tend to employ more labour at home the more they produce in the host country. This probably reflects the needs of foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries for management and supervisory services from parent companies. Another explanation might be that Belgian outward FDI is largely vertical. In contrast, no evidence is found about employment reallocation between parents and affiliates operating in lower-wage European countries. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence on overall effects on employment in Belgium of its outward foreign direct investment for the period 1999-2007, i.e. using the most recent data available. In contrast to many other studies, statistical diagnostic tests were carried out to choose the appropriate model to best fit the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchronization of growth rates are an important feature of international business cycles, particularly in relation to regional integration projects such as the single currency in Europe. Synchronization of growth rates clearly enhances the effectiveness of European Central Bank monetary policy, ensuring that policy changes are attuned to the dynamics of growth and business cycles in the majority of member states. In this paper, a dissimilarity metric is constructed by measuring the topological differences between the GDP growth patterns in recurrence plots for individual countries. The results show that synchronization of growth rates were higher among the euro area member states during the second half of the 1980s and from 1997 to roughly 2002. Apart from these two time periods, euro area member states do not appear to be more synchronized than a group of major international countries, suggesting that apart from specific times when European integration initiatives were being implemented, globalization was likely the dominant factor behind international business cycle synchronization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate what we have learned to date about the effects of privatization from the experiences during the last fifteen to twenty years in the postcommunist (transition) economies and, where relevant, China. We distinguish separately the impact of privatization on efficiency, profitability, revenues, and other indicators and distinguish between studies on the basis of their econometric methodology in order to focus attention on more credible results. The effect of privatization is mostly positive in Central Europe, but quantitatively smaller than that to foreign owners and greater in the later than earlier transition period. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, privatization to foreign owners yields a positive or insignificant effect while privatization to domestic owners generates a negative or insignificant effect. The available papers on China find diverse results, with the effect of nonstate ownership on total factor productivity being mostly positive but sometimes insignificant or negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition of economic growth can be analyzed in two different ways. In the ‘traditional method’ for the decomposition of GDP growth, total imports are deducted from exports. This approach underestimates the importance of exports for the growth in GDP, and overestimates the importance of domestic expenditure categories. In the alternative methodology proposed in this paper, imports are allocated to all expenditure categories. Although this ‘import-adjusted method’ is more complex than the ‘traditional method’, it has the considerable advantage that the contributions of the expenditure categories to GDP growth provide a better understanding of why GDP growth decelerates or accelerates. The methodology and data requirements for calculating the import content of final demand, and the implications for the decomposition of real GDP growth, are discussed. For six European countries and the United States, the paper shows that applying the alternative methodology provides rather a different economic story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares commercial banks' efficiency in four relatively homogenous groups of countries, though with different levels of economic development and involvement in the process of European integration. The first group consists of Portugal and Greece; the second group of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia; the third of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; and the fourth of Bulgaria and Romania. The paper aims to reveal whether the differences among regions and countries in their stages of European integration and economic development are also visible in banking efficiency. Thus, the hypothesis that a higher degree of European economic integration and economic development goes hand in hand with higher banking efficiency is tested. Employing data envelopment analysis on unconsolidated data, we evaluate the efficiency of financial intermediation from 2001 to 2003. Results suggest that differences in banking efficiency exist among the regions analyzed, and the hierarchy corresponds with the hierarchy of regions in terms of economic development and degree of integration. However, the rapid growth of banking intermediation efficiency recorded in Central and East European countries could trade off the actual efficiency gap compared to traditional EU members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]