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442. Fiscal Decentralisation Economic Growth in High-Income OECD Countries
- Author:
- Ulrich Thießen
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Following a brief review of the benefits and shortcomings of fiscal decentralisation, the paper attempts to empirically analyse for high-income OECD countries the relationship between per capita economic growth, capital formation and total factor productivity growth, on the one hand, and indicators of fiscal decentralisation, on the other hand. The evidence appears to be consistent with the hypothesis that the benefits of fiscal decentralisation on economic growth and capital formation are limited. However, satisfactory indicators of fiscal decentralisation are yet not existing so that the results are subject to serious qualifications.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
443. Asymmetric Labour Markets in a Converging Europe: Do Differences Matter?
- Author:
- Ray Barrell and Karen Dury
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Asymmetric economic structures across Europe may result in common shocks having asymmetric effects. In this paper we investigate whether the differences in the structure and dynamics that we observe in the European economies matter for policy design. In particular it is widely believed that labour market responses are different, with the structure of labour demand and the nature of the bargain over wages differing between countries. In addition the European economies move at different speeds in response to common shocks. In this paper we construct three different models of Europe, one where the labour market relationships are separately estimated and assumed to be different, one where the most statistically acceptable commonalties are imposed and one where common labour market relationships are imposed across all member countries. We use panel estimation techniques to test for the imposition of commonalties among countries. We find that it is possible to divide Europe into sub-groups, but it is not possible to have one model of European labour markets. We use stochastic simulation techniques on these different models of Europe and find that the preferred rule for the ECB is a combined nominal aggregate and inflation-targeting rule. We find that while this rule is dominant in all our models, the more inertia that is introduced into the labour markets, the more a nominal aggregate-targeting rule alone may be preferred. However, we conclude, that differences in the labour market transmission mechanisms across the European countries appear to have little influence on the setting of monetary policy for the ECB, although this depends on the relative importance of the different components in the welfare loss function.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
444. Trade Jobs in Portugal: A Microeconomic Approach
- Author:
- Ana Rute Cardoso
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- The Portuguese economy presents a low unemployment rate when compared to its European counterparts and it has been claimed that this is partly due to the slow restructuring of the economy, which has been keeping its specialisation in traditional industries, some of them major exporting industries. This study analyses job creation and job destruction at the firm level across skill groups, during the 1980s and the 1990s. The major aim is to explore the role of international trade against alternative explanations of job flows, providing an answer to the question: did international trade help sustain the employment of particular groups of workers, namely the least skilled, in the Portuguese economy? Could conditions in international markets therefore have contributed to keep a low unemployment rate? A matched data set on workers and firms is used, which includes a direct measure of the skill of the worker. Results indicate that technology indicators are more relevant determinants of job flows than conditions in international product markets. Indeed, import prices have no impact on job creation or job destruction for the unskilled or on job creation for the skilled. Higher export prices lead to job creation for the skilled labour force, thus pointing to a certain skill upgrading.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
445. Friendly Schengen Borderland Policy on the New Borders of an Enlarged EU and its Neighbours
- Author:
- Michael Emerson, Joanna Apap, Nicholas Whyte, Marius Vahl, Jakub Boratynski, and Grzegorz Gromadzki
- Publication Date:
- 11-2001
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- One often hears the term 'Europe' being used interchangeably with 'European Union', giving the impression that those countries that are not destined to become members of the EU in the near future are not part of the same continent. Even after the forthcoming accession by 13 new countries, a significant part of Europe will remain outside the 'EU club'.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Middle East
446. Our Future Southeastern Turkish Frontiers
- Author:
- Nathalie Tocci
- Publication Date:
- 10-2001
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Today's southeast Turkey has historically been the homeland of a large number of diverse ethnic groups. Nowadays, in many town and villages of the region the largest ethnic group is Kurdish. Turkish officials under Turgut Özal in the 1990s for the first time admitted there may be around 10 million Kurds living in Turkey. Other estimates indicate a Kurdish population of around 15 million. Adding to this figure the additional 10 million or so Kurds living in Iran, Iraq, Syria and the former Soviet Union, the Kurdish people represent the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Europe, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, and Syria
447. Issues for Europe -- Post-11 September
- Author:
- Daniel Gros and Michael Emerson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2001
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Ten days now after 11 September, the policy agenda becomes a huge set of interlocking issues – political, strategic, economic. The present note makes a first survey of these issues, and expresses opinions on some of them. However the main purpose is to establish a template or framework to help monitor and evaluate the evolution of the world's response to this massive event. It will be updated and revised in further CEPS Policy Briefs as the story unfolds.
- Topic:
- Security and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Europe
448. Institutions Structural Unemployment: Do Capital-Market Imperfections Matter?
- Author:
- Ansgar Belke and Rainer Fehn
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyses whether differences in institutional structures on capital markets contribute to explaining why some OECD-countries, in particular the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been much more successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment than most continental-European OECD-countries. It is argued that the often-blamed labour market rigidities alone, while important, do not provide a satisfactory explanation for these differences across countries and over time. Financial constraints are potentially important obstacles against creating new firms and jobs and thus against coping well with structural change and against moving successfully toward the “new economy”. Highly developed venture capital markets should help to alleviate such financial constraints. This view that labour-market institutions should be supplemented by capital market imperfections for explaining differences in employment performances is supported by our panel data analysis, in which venture capital turns out to be a significant institutional variable.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
449. The Changing Nature and Determinants of EU Trade Policies
- Author:
- Paul Brenton
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- EU trade policies and the environment in which they are determined are now considerably different from when the EU came into being in the 1950s. With the exceptions of agriculture and textiles and clothing, tariffs and quantitative restrictions on trade in goods have been reduced to historically very low levels. But trade policy is now about much more than border restrictions upon trade in goods. Trade in services and the impact of national differences in regulatory regimes are now firmly on the trade policy agenda. This paper describes the current multilateral and preferential trade policies of the EU. It highlights the increasing importance of regulatory issues and the fact that some of these are being addressed outside of both multilateral and standard bilateral free trade agreements. This reflects the mixed motives behind EU trade policies and that for trade with certain regions the typical political economy factors framing trade policy are no longer relevant. For example, liberalisation of transatlantic trade, in the limited form at present of mutual recognition of conformity assessment, is being strongly driven by large corporate business. This trend suggests that the pyramid of preferences usually used to depict EU trade policies is becoming very distorted.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
450. The 'Cyprus Question': Reshaping Community Identities and Elite Interests within a Wider European Framework
- Author:
- Nathalie Tocci
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Since 1963 the 'Cyprus question' has proved one of the most intractable inter-communal conflicts within the international system. Despite the assiduous involvement of the United Nations, the long list of negotiations and inter-communal talks have failed to yield any concrete agreement. What are the roots and causes of the 'Cyprus question' and what explains the international community's repeated failures to resolve it? This paper argues that the causes of the 'Cyprus question' comprise two crucial dimensions. First, the conflict is caused by the underlying inter-communal dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, which is in turn triggered both by real and by imaginary conditions of division and disparity. Second, the 'Cyprus question' is the product of a delicate balance of elite interests. Clearly, a solution to the problem must reflect both dimensions. An initial settlement that represents preferable payoffs than the current status quo to both community elites, must be brokered. Thereafter it is possible to tackle the real conditions of division and disparity, which cause the underlying inter-communal conflict. The overarching framework of prosperity and stability provided by the European Union could contribute in both respects by facilitating the formulation and implementation of an initial inter-elite settlement and accelerating the ultimate eradication of the underlying conflict between peoples.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, NATO, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Europe