Regional Convergence in Europe

Convergence among regions is explicitly defined as a political aim of the European Union. Overall, NUTS3 regions have indeed shown a path of convergence since the year 2000, but there are huge differences among the regions. Many Eastern European countries as well as several regions in Spain and Portugal are characterised by a convergence process. However, the opposite holds for many regions in Greece, Italy and the UK. The size of a region’s manufacturing is important for the process of convergence, and the direction of subsidies from the EU to the right fields of activity also has a positive influence on the probability of a region to converge.     

The Salmon-Agreement Between Norway and the European Union—A Welfare Economic Analysis

The relationship between tariff policy and anti-dumping use is empirically examined. Using a panel dataset of 56 countries over the period of 1995–2007, the effects of tariff liberalization on anti-dumping use are found to vary across world regions. For European countries, as well as developed North American and Latin American countries, a lower tariff rate appears to induce more use of anti-dumping measures, which emerge as a protection tool among trade liberalization regimes. In contrast, a reduction in a tariff rate leads to lower anti-dumping use in developing North American and Latin American countries and in developed Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries. In terms of initiating anti-dumping action, developed countries are likely to be more sensitive than developing countries to tariff policy change in most regions of the world.     

Thick and Thin Borders in the European Union: How Deep Internal Integration is Within Countries,and How Shallow Between Them

The existence of large border effects is one of the main puzzles of international macroeconomics. The seminal paper by McCallum found that trade between any two Canadian provinces was (on average) 22 times greater than trade between any Canadian province and any US state. Although various authors have estimated internal and external border effects for the whole European Union and some specific European countries, none has done so in the manner that McCallum's seminal paper, stymied by lack of data on region‐to‐region international trade flows. This study uses a novel data set that captures intra and international truck shipments between Spanish regions and regions in seven European countries during the period 2004–11. It computes internal and external border effects, offering novel results for aggregate flows and the importing countries, and estimates several specifications of the gravity equation, so as to tackle such issues as the multilateral resistance term, heteroscedasticity, and zero flows and non‐linear relation between trade and distance. The paper also adds a detailed analysis on the external border effect for each Spanish exporting region and each of the seven European countries considered. By means of this analysis, we shed new light on the relative integration between regions of these seven countries and Spanish exporting regions. Finally, we conduct an extrapolation exercise, computing the ‘trade potentials’ that would be expected in a fully integrated Europe and estimating how long full integration would take to achieve between each Spanish exporting region and each European importing country. To this regard, two alternative scenarios are considered: one using the growth rates of the Spanish exports before the crisis (2001–08) and other considering the post‐crisis growth rates (2011–13).     

Regional concentration of innovative business services: testing some explanatory factors at European regional level

This article explores the role of some traditional locational factors in explaining business services concentration at the European regional level. The link between (mainly innovative) business services and income, density, the role of the service economy or qualifications, among other variables, is assessed using specialisation indexes and multiple regression analysis for regions belonging to five European countries. Results show that the influence of locational determinants varies a great deal depending on the type of service, the region and country considered, and the presence of capital regions. This latter conclusion emphasises the importance of national differences and service peculiarities (not all innovative services behave in the same way) as explanatory factors.     

The EEC tariff preferences for LDCs

The Council of Ministers of the European CommunIties decided on March 30, 1971, to put into effect on July 1, 1971, a system of general tariff preferences favouring the exports of manufactures and semimanufactures from developing countries. By taking this decision the European Communities have reaffirmed their leading role among the western industrialised countries.     

Location choices of multinational firms in Europe: The role of EU cohesion policy

Using data on 5509 foreign subsidiaries established in 50 regions of 8 EU countries over the period 1991-1999, we estimate a mixed logit model of the location choice of multinational firms in Europe. In particular, we focus on the role of EU Cohesion Policy in attracting foreign investors from both within and outside Europe. We find that, after controlling for the role of agglomeration economies as well as a number of other regional and country characteristics and allowing for a very flexible correlation pattern among choices, Structural and Cohesion funds allocated by the EU to laggard regions have indeed contributed to attracting multinationals. These policies as well as other determinants play a different role in the case of European investors as opposed to non-European ones.     

How is the Financial Crisis Affecting China''s Exhibition Industry?

As the financial crisis, which was caused by the American subprime crisis, spreads across the globe, some countries and regions including the Unit-ed States, Japan and the European Union have plunged into economic recession.     

Geburtenwende in Deutschland – was ist dran und was sind die Ursachen?

In comparison to other European countries, Germany is among those with the lowest birth rate and the highest median age of the population. Yet recently there are signs of a trend change in German fertility. For a decade now, birth rates in larger German cities have been on the rise, and this new baby boom has spread to smaller urban regions, leading to a trend change in overall fertility. The main years of this trend change are 2009 through 2011, parallel to the economic and financial crises of that time and following in the wake of important changes in German family policy in 2007/2008.     

The local and the global: exploring traits of homogeneity and heterogeneity in European food cultures

One type of boundary rarely explored in international marketing are the cultural boundaries dividing Europe into regions with individual cultural backgrounds and different consumption patterns. This article explores information about such patterns of food consumption based on information from a database originating from a 1989 pan-European lifestyle survey comprising around 20 000 people in 15 European countries divided into 79 regions. The degree of homogeneity in the different nation-states and regions was analysed. The article contributes with new, specific empirical evidence about Europeans' food-related behaviour and attitudes and provides culture-based explanations and interpretations of observed differences and similarities. It is shown that nation/language boundaries still have a strong impact on European food cultures.     

The cyclical impact of EU cohesion policy in fast growing EU countries

Most of the newly acceded central and east European EU countries are among the main beneficiaries of EU Cohesion Policy. The main objective of this policy is to improve the long-term growth and employment prospects of the supported regions, and thereby to support convergence towards higher levels of per capita income. In the short run, however, EU Cohesion Policy may at times amplify macroeconomic challenges for supported countries. In periods of a downturn of the economy it can have a stabilising impact. During periods of unsustainably fast economic growth, however, its short-term demand effects may contribute to internal and/or external macroeconomic imbalances. Economic policymakers should thus ensure that EU Cohesion Policy enhances long-term productivity, while avoiding, in times of overheating, an increased risk of unsustainable developments as a result of the additional demand stimulus from EU Cohesion Policy. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Central Bank. The authors are grateful to Martin Bijsterbosch, Gesa Miehe-Nordmeyer, Ad van Riet, Philipp Rother and Desom Weller for their helpful comments.     

Comprehensive Trade Agreements: Conditioning Globalisation or Eroding the European Model?

Trade dynamics within the EU are presently pushing it towards deepening globalisation through bilateral comprehensive trade agreements which establish far-reaching rules that govern the bilateral trade relationship. The European Commission has defended these agreements as a vehicle through which to promote world trade in accordance with European values and norms. However, the theory of fiscal federalism and the principle of subsidiarity tell us that one should not centralise decisions at the supranational level which are better taken at the national or regional level when there are different preferences among countries or regions. Consequently, member state and regional competences ought not to be perceived as a mere obstacle to swift trade deals. Rather, they can provide an important checks and balances function with regard to whether EU trade policy is truly working to condition globalisation according to European values and preferences.     

Enlargement and the Textiles,Clothing and Footwear Industry

The textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry is a labour intensive industry, strongly determined by globalization and easy relocation to low‐cost countries. Hence also in the European Union this industry is relatively more important in the low‐wage regions of the EU‐Southern periphery. With the envisaged enlargement, however, these countries fear a further shift of the sector to Central and Eastern Europe as these countries still have a comparative advantage in terms of low labour costs. The present article investigates whether this fear is justified, looking at three main aspects: first at the position and history of the TCF sector in the European Union and its role in the EU periphery, second at the sector in the Central and Eastern accession countries, and third at gobalization issues. The second aspect is dealt with in great detail, as development trends in the Central and East European countries are important and telling. Much has happened during the 15‐year (and more) period between the collapse of communism and the EU membership in this region, most important the integration to the EU by the means of trade, in particular outward processing trade. These developments mainly seem to determine future trends in an enlarged Europe. Overall however, future prospects have to be seen in a global context, strongly influencing the sector via changes in global trade policies.     

Employment effects of the European internal market

The completion of the European internal market is generally expected to have beneficial welfare and growth effects. To what extent will they lead to a change in employment? How will the employment effects be distributed among countries, industries and social groups?     

世界主要国家和地区生物燃料发展现状和趋势展望

出于能源安全、促进农村经济发展、保护环境等方面考虑,自2000年以来,以美国、巴西和欧盟为主的一些国家和地区大力倡导和扶持生物燃料生产,对当地经济发挥了极大的推动作用,同时也对国际粮油市场产生了巨大影响。借鉴先进国家和地区的有关政策措施和成功经验,对于我国因地制宜发展生物燃料生产,保障能源安全、保护生态环境和建设社会主义新农村具有重大意义。     

Economic and Systemic Explanations of Ownership Concentration among Europe's Largest Companies

The paper examines causes and effects of ownership concentration among the largest companies in 12 European countries. As a reference point the paper takes a seminal empirical study on US data and examines to what extent the model is applicable in European countries. The findings indicate that both general economic effects and system effects are significant. Ownership concentration is found to decrease with firm size and to increase with earnings volatility. But in support of the system theories advocated nationality is also found to have a significant effect which is partly attributable to institutional differences between nations such as stock market size and the frequency of large banks. Finally ownership concentration is found to have an insignificant effect on accounting profitability (return on equity)     

Volatility transmission in regional Asian stock markets

This study aims to investigate the presence of volatility transmission among regional equity markets of Pakistan, China, India, and Sri Lanka. Moreover for developed countries, the stock indices of USA, UK, Singapore, and Japan have been considered. If countries of the same region have a long run relationship then chances of an optimum currency area increases whereas, a diversification strategy to reduce risk is not workable. Results among the developed and Asian countries show that volatility transmission is present between friendly countries of different regions with economic links. We also find some evidence of transmission of volatility between countries which are on unfriendly terms.     

25 Jahre Maastrichter Verträge — reale Divergenzen und institutionelle Reformen

The paper argues that 18 years after the introduction of the Euro, the European Monetary Union has yet been unable to achieve sufficient real economic convergence among its member economies. As a result, the European Central Bank (ECB) still faces a dilemma in the sense that the common monetary policy is unable to meet current policy requirements in both boom and recession countries. Of course, the extensive asset purchase programmes of the ECB in the aftermath of the Euro crisis provided the necessary time for policy reforms, but deep rooted structural problems in a number of member countries and a divergent understanding of macroeconomic policy have remained and will lead to sustained high tensions in the eurozone in the foreseeable future.     

Fighting debt explosion in the European sovereign debt crisis

A number of tools have been suggested for solving the European sovereign debt crisis, in particular the options of leveraging the EFSF/ESM, introducing Eurobonds and a European Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Euro-TARP). However, it is unclear how these instruments will work, given jittery financial markets, the pending sovereign default of Greece and the fear of contagion among other countries. In the following paper, these policy tools will be analysed and evaluated with respect to their effects as well as their potential power to solve the debt crisis.     

全球战略性新兴产业发展的主要异同点与未来趋势

全球金融危机爆发以来,以美、日、欧为主的发达国家和地区,纷纷把发展的目光聚焦到培育发展既可促进科技创新、又可引领未来发展的新兴产业上来。文章介绍了美国、日本、欧盟在培育发展战略性新兴产业方面的主要做法,归纳了这些国家和地区在这个方面的主要异同点。最后,分析了全球战略性新兴产业发展的未来趋势。