Competition and Concentration in the New European Banking Landscape

This paper measures the degree of concentration and competition in the enlarged European Union (EU) banking environment over the period 1998–2002. In the empirical part we opt for a methodology as proposed by Panzar and Rosse based on a non‐structural estimation of market competition. Our results suggest that European banks were operating under conditions of monopolistic competition and that bank interest revenues in the 10 new EU member states was earned under conditions of higher competition than those that existed in the old EU banking countries. The opposite result was observed for total operating revenues. Smaller banks earn interest income in a less competitive environment than larger banks, while the opposite is observed for total revenues.     

Convergence of interest rate pass-through in a wider euro zone?

This study investigates interest rate pass-through convergence for the eight Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) that joined the European Union. Based on a unifying empirical pass-through model that allows for thresholds, asymmetric adjustment, and structural changes, we find that the pass-through in many CEECs has become faster over time and is generally more complete than in the euro zone. We find evidence for convergence across CEECs with market concentration, bank health, foreign bank participation and monetary policy regime as conditioning factors. No convergence of the CEEC pass-through is found vis-à-vis the heterogeneous euro zone.     

The impact of free and exaggerated prices on perceived quality of services

Previous research in the price-quality area has largely limited its focus to the normal price range and has concentrated on physical goods almost entirely. This study examines the effect of offering a service for free and at an exaggerated price on the perception of its quality. Consistent with the theory developed in this paper, the experimental results suggest that when the tested services are offered for free and for exaggerated prices, they are perceived as lower in quality than when they are offered in a normal price range.     

Macroeconomic stabilization through monetary and fiscal policy coordination: Implications for European Monetary Union

In a two-country model, we consider the implications of monetary and fiscal policy coordination for macroeconomic stabilization. We show that the optimal regime is one of monetary and fiscal policy coordination under flexible exchange rates. In the context of the European Community, this suggests that the desire to fix exchange rates may not be costless. In addition, we show that fiscal coordination requires a relatively high degree of flexibility in fiscal policy. This result suggests that limits on the flexibility of fiscal policies, as suggested in the Delors Report, may hinder macroeconomic stabilization.     

Fiscal policy independence in a European Monetary Union

Do plans for a monetary union in Europe call for limits on the freedom of the country members of the union to use fiscal policy? In order to provide a tentative answer, we simulate the IMF model MULTIMOD, given various shocks, in the case of a European Monetary Union consisting only of France and Germany. The results clearly indicate the possible value of allowing unfettered use of fiscal policy in both countries. The reasons lie partly in differences in the initial position of the two, partly in differences in their preferences. We also examine the change in the policy significance of the current account in the monetary union. Current account imbalances clearly cease to have the same significance in a monetary union; but they do not therefore become irrelevant.     

欧美部分国家产业集群实践经验综述

地区产业集群对区域经济的发展起着至关重要的作用。美国、加拿大、意大利、英国、丹麦等国在地区产业集群方面有许多实践经验，主要涉及四个方面：地区产业集群服务、吸引地区集群目标投资、加强地区集群网络与桥梁建设、开发地区集群人力资源。对外国产业集群实践经验进行总结，希望对我国的地区产业集群实践有所裨益。     

基于信息使用者的审计报告质量特征体系之构建

审计报告质量是审计质量的综合体现,直接影响到审计信息使用者的决策、审计机构及人员审计风险的扩展与释放,法律责任的承担等。本文通过研究,试图构建我国的审计报告质量特征体系,以期对审计报告质量进行评判,进一步提升审计质量,增强审计信息相关性,弥合审计期望差距,使审计与其信息使用者实现良性互动。     

基于IP的3G服务质量控制及实现

第三代移动通信系统 (3G)的第二阶段是采用IP传送网 ,服务质量 (QoS)是极其重要的问题。在讨论基于IP的 3G中QoS体系结构、业务QoS要求基础上 ,重点研究QoS控制原理和区分服务的实现 ,并得出一些有参考价值的结论。     

From mutual recognition to mutual scientific opinion? Constitutional framework for risk analysis in EU food safety law

Regulation 178/2002 (the so-called General Food Law – GFL) codifies risk analysis as the core principle of the modern food safety policy. This article places the GFL in EU multi-level food safety governance and analyses the impact of risk analysis, the precautionary principle and mechanisms of scientific governance introduced by the GFL on both national and Community legislation. It discusses the case law of the European Courts dealing with scientific evidence and the precautionary principle applied to both European and national food safety measures. The article concludes with some observations on the role of the risk analysis methodology in the Community internal market.     

A view of the European Union as an evolving country portfolio

We apply portfolio theory to assess the consequences in terms of risk sharing of the evolution of the industry mix of European Union countries between 1986 and 1997, and of the changes in the membership configurations of both economic and monetary unions. We compute a measure of risk-return performance for EU countries, by considering countries as collections of industries, and observe that risk-return performance improved in most countries. We find that the EU9 is marginally more efficient than the other historical EU groupings and that the Euro Zone might slightly benefit from the inclusion of the United Kingdom.