The European Union: Eastern enlargement and taxation

The European Union has not defined its limits in geographical terms. Each enlargement has led and will lead to a decrease of the European Union's per capita GDP. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition countries went through a long and deep recession. However, they have reached a stage of positive growth and their tax levels are approaching the lower limit of the range of tax/GDP ratios in European Union countries. Differences exist in tax capacity and tax effort. In some countries, greater efforts are possible to improve tax revenues. Further examination of the timing of tax administration reform may shed light on tax effort in transition countries. The paper also suggests the existence of a negative relationship between tax effort and corruption. (JEL P27, H20) This research is supported in part by San Jose State University (SJSU) during the author's stay at SJSU as 2003-04 International Tax Policy Research Fellow. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a seminar at SJSU. The author gratefully acknowledges useful comments received from seminar participants.     

European Union enlargement: An historic milestone in the process of European integration

Ten European countries with economies in transition and two market economies are negotiating full membership with the European Union. This paper considers the economic dimension of the forthcoming enlargement of the European Union, especially on the characteristics of the economies in transition and on the economic implications of the enlargement for European Union agriculture. The transition of the central and eastern European countries from a centrally planned to a market economy, although already in progress for a decade, is far from complete. Uneven macroeconomic developments in the various countries can be attributed to some extent to their individual situation at the start of the transformation. However, they also reflect the varying extent to which institutional reform programs have been implemented in these countries.Distinguished Address presented at the Fifty-First International Atlantic Economic Conference, March 13–20, 2001, Athens, Greece.     

The Effects of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on National Fiscal Sustainability

This paper presents a methodology to analyze the responsiveness of fiscal sustainability to the endogenous fiscal discipline that will be strengthened by the EMU. This discipline arises in response to the harmonization of tax systems, the loss of control of current and prospective money financing, and the deepening of financial market-based discipline. The model developed in this paper is a generalization of Blanchard's 1984 model, in which the interest rate is determined endogenously. This provides the framework to analyze more features of the linkage between sustainability and endogenous fiscal discipline. This paper also presents a new intratemporal fiscal sustainability index.     

欧洲：萎缩放缓风险犹存

今年第一季度,欧元区经济环比下降2．5％,创下自欧元区1999年成立以来的最大季度降幅,主要因为投资受信贷紧缩影响持续大幅萎缩。所幸,由于通胀率走低,欧元区个人消费的下滑速度在一定程度上得到遏制,而全球贸易开始呈现好转迹象也将让欧元区的出口形势得到改善。在7月8日揭幕的G8峰会上,八国集团领导人也表示,尽管出现令人振奋的迹象,但八国经济仍然面临着严重的下行风险。     

Liberalizing Reforms and the European Union: Accession,Membership, and Convergence

The European Union (EU) may promote reforms to policies and institutions through at least two distinct mechanisms. First, accession to the EU requires countries to undertake reforms. Second, the EU common market may promote Tiebout jurisdictional competition. We empirically evaluate these two mechanisms using an unbalanced panel of up to 45 European countries during 1970–2010. We find that relationships between EU accession/membership and measures of policies/institutions are often statistically insignificant. Furthermore, when the estimated effects are statistically significant they are generally modest.     

欧盟:漫漫复苏路

欧洲央行在6月份的经济预测中下调了欧元区2009年和2010年的本地生产总值(GDP)预期,央行官员预计,2009年欧元区实际GDP将较去年萎缩4.1-5.1%,2010年实际GDP则可能在下降1.0%至增长0.4%之间.骤降的需求、脆弱的金融体系以及难以协调的合作,都使欧盟的复苏之路极为漫长.     

欧洲货币联盟基础不稳

欧洲货币联盟大厦的基石—《稳定与增长公约》,在2002年遭受了严重的冲击。几乎所有欧元区的国家都采取了扩张的财政政策。德国、葡萄牙两国财政赤字超越3％的红线,法国和意大利也濒临红线。欧元区国家又宣布2004年达成财政平衡的目标已经不能实现,必须要推迟。本文通过对货币联盟运行一年来的现状进行分析,认为欧元区国家财政扩张的原因主要在于:内部的不对称冲击、货币联盟自身的缺陷及政治联合的滞后。如果不加快改革,货币联盟大厦则有倾覆的危险。     

美欧同盟走向衰落

美欧同盟关系改变的背景是国际格局的变化。在新的国际格局背景下,美欧丧失了共同的安全战略,而且各自形成了不能相容的安全观念。“冷战式”的美欧同盟走向衰落。欧洲希望建立同美国平起平坐的新式美欧同盟,而美国将把欧洲降为美国全球安全网络中“灵活”同盟的一部分,而且可能被分割成许多块加入这个网络。美欧矛盾在冷战后正在发生质变,尽管美欧矛盾尚不是对抗性的,但美欧矛盾将是未来国际关系中的主要矛盾。伊拉克战争前后跨大西洋矛盾表明,美国试图通过分化欧洲内部关系的手段继续其对欧洲的控制,而欧洲要实现其多边世界主张,必须深化一体化进程。     

From the European Monetary System to Economic and Monetary Union — How and why?

The paper starts from the premise that the Delors Report is the main point of reference to create economic and monetary union in the EC countries. After a brief review of the Report, the study focuses on the transition phase leading to union and in particular to the gradual transfer of monetary authority to the EC level. It is argued that the attribution of (i) adjustment of short-term interest differentials, (ii) intervention policy vis-a-vis third countries and (iii) changes in reserve requirements to the European System of Central Banks would give this new collective body significant centralized authority, while leaving ultimate power to national governments concerning realignments in the transition stage.     

The gains from variety in the European Union

Over the last decade, European Union members have experienced a steady increase in imports. This increase was accompanied by a strong growth in the number of imported goods and trading partners, suggesting positive welfare gains for consumers via an extended set of consumption possibilities, as pointed out in the ??New Trade Theory??. In this paper, we apply the methodology developed by Feenstra (Am Econ Rev 84(1):157?C177, 1994) and Broda and Weinstein (Q J Econ 121(2):541?C585, 2006) to structurally estimate the gains from imported variety for the 27 countries of the European Union using highly disaggregated trade data at the CN-8 level from Eurostat for the period from 1999 to 2008. Our results show that, within the European Union, especially ??newer?? and smaller member states exhibit high gains from newly imported varieties. Furthermore, we find that the majority of the gains from variety for consumers stems from intra-European Union trade.     

Economic growth in Asia: Determinants and prospects

Using a growth accounting framework, we find that developing Asia grew rapidly over the past three decades mainly due to robust growth in capital accumulation. The contributions of education and total factor productivity in the region's past economic growth remain relatively limited. We also make long-run growth projections for developing Asia by combining the growth accounting framework with growth regression approach. Our baseline projections based on the model of conditional convergence show that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of the 12 developing Asian economies covered by this paper will be consistently lower for the next two decades than their historical performance. However, policy reforms in education, property rights, and research and development can substantially raise GDP growth in the region and partly offset the slowdown in growth caused by the convergence phenomenon. Even under the baseline scenario, the region's share in the world economy will increase from the current 34 percent in 2009 to close to a half in 2030.     

欧盟蔬菜市场与中国欧盟蔬菜贸易分析

中国是世界上最大的蔬菜生产国,欧盟是最大的蔬菜贸易区域.两者间蔬菜贸易发展迅速.本文运用显示性比较优势指数、贸易强度指数、产业内贸易指数和出口产品相似度指数等分析了中国与欧盟蔬菜贸易的互补性和竞争性.研究结果表明中国与欧盟在主要蔬菜出口市场上的竞争性不强,双边蔬菜贸易存在单向的互补性.中国应加强与欧盟在农业领域的合作以获得更多贸易以外的利益.     

Economic Union,Finance and Growth: A Prognosis in West Africa

This paper compares the impact of financial development on economic growth in the Union Économique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) and non‐UEMOA countries. It also examines the finance‐growth nexus before and after the formation of UEMOA, as well as the indirect effect of economic union on economic growth through the financial sector. The study reveals a significant difference in the finance‐growth nexus between UEMOA and non‐UEMOA countries. Specifically, financial development has a robust positive impact on growth in UEMOA countries, while the impact is tenuous in non‐UEMOA countries. However, we find no remarkable difference in the finance‐growth nexus before and after the formation of UEMOA. We also reveal that economic union has no robust indirect effect on economic growth via the financial sector. The economic implication is that UEMOA could have economic benefits, but financial development is not a channel through which it influences growth. Therefore, it is necessary to reposition the union so that it can enhance the impact of finance on growth.     

Economic Integration and Union Power

The standard utility-maximizing model of the trade union in a closed economy is reformulated for an environment where economic integration is under way or expected to occur soon. In the (European) realistic setting of union-dominated labor markets, domestic wages are shown to be affected by labor market developments abroad. This article provides an explanation of the international transmission of inflation and disinflation     

The Use of Cheques in the European Union: A Cross-Country Analysis

The use of cheques has been declining in the European Union (EU), along increased integration in the payments field. This trend is not uniform across the EU, and some countries have implemented policies to discourage the use of cheques due to its considerable social costs and risks. This paper provides a cross-country analysis for the period 2000–2012 of the determinants of cheque usage, measured both as per capita number and share of payments. Special attention is given to the effects of the application of fees in a framework where unfunded cheques are considered as an autonomous type of crime in some EU countries. Our results suggest that the existence of fees influences negatively cheque usage, even when there are legal elements that increase its security.     

欧盟企业并购控制法律管辖权制度分析

2004年《关于企业集中的第139/2004号理事会条例》赋予了欧盟委员会对在欧盟地区的满足条例规定的企业并购拥有排他性管辖权,同时,也赋予成员国一定的管辖权。特别是其"一站式"制度原则就体现在案件管辖权的移送制度中。对欧盟企业并购管辖权的分配机制方面研究,有助于我国企业对欧盟企业并购的理解,另一方面也是帮助对我国并购监管法律法规的思考。     

Trade Union and Global Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper develops a simple framework for examining the role of unions in a global economy. It builds on the model of different institutions by comparing America with a flexible wage and Europe with a rigid wage (the existence of union), where the two areas are integrated via perfect capital mobility. We find the necessary condition that the degree of wage orientation of the union is larger than the firm's bargaining power and determines the positive direction on global economic growth. In addition, the effect of union's bargaining power on global economic growth is ambiguous. If the sum of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour and the output elasticity of labour is smaller than one, or the firms are characterized by a Leontief production function (Harrod–Domar growth model) or an extremely low substituting elasticity (much empirical literature is supported), the union's bargaining power will lead to an increase in the growth of the global economy. In the general Cobb–Douglas production function (Solow–Swan neoclassical growth model), the union's bargaining power will result in a decline in the growth of the global economy.