Emigration and wages: The EU enlargement experiment

The enlargement of the European Union provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of the lifting of migration restrictions on the migrant sending countries. With EU enlargement in 2004, 1.2 million workers from Eastern Europe emigrated to the UK and Ireland. I use this emigration wave to show that emigration significantly changed the wage distribution in the sending country, in particular between young and old workers. Using a novel dataset from Lithuania, the UK and Ireland for the calibration of a structural model of labor demand, I find that over the period of five years emigration increased the wages of young workers by 6%, while it had no effect on the wages of old workers. Contrary to the immigration literature, there is no significant effect of emigration on the wage distribution between high-skilled and low-skilled workers.     

EU Enlargement,Institutional Governance and Innovation Environment in the Baltic Countries

Abstract

This paper presents institutional framework to implement innovative and co-operative procedures of industrial reorganization and economic growth in the Baltic countries. By using the recent features of organization mode theories and institutional economics, we apply how institutional development helps the Baltic firms to survive in the integration of EU25 markets. We present this framework as a dynamic process in three stages. The first stage identifies the main foundations from the transition period: macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, and financial governance. The second stage considers how to build up the institutional structure of the governance in production. The third stage points out those topics that enhance innovation environment and benchmarks the Baltic countries to EU innovation capacity. These progressive stages in financial, production, and innovation systems of governance can be overlapped or happen in sequential order but the final purpose of these improvements is to enhance the managerial incentives for higher innovative activity in the EU-Baltic industrial integration. It is found that the Baltic innovation input capacity is competitive compared with the EU25 average but a gap in innovation output is still essential.     

An examination of EU trade disintegration scenarios

This paper demonstrates the welfare implications of the differential disintegration of the EU. Using a structural gravity approach, our estimates suggest that the rest of the EU countries have much more to lose from the disintegration of the EU compared to a disorderly Brexit. At the same time, neighbouring high‐income and middle‐income countries, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Norway, are expected to benefit from EU disintegration under some scenarios because trade would be diverted from EU countries.     

Accounting Quality in Eastern Europe after Communism

Research Question/Issue: This study, in the taxonomy of Schiehll and Martins (2016 Schiehll, E. and H. C. Martins. 2016. Cross-national governance research: A systematic review and assessment. Corporate Governance: An International Review 24 (3):181–99. doi:10.1111/corg.12158.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), examines cross-national corporate governance, within their “legal” category. It rests on the understanding that to fully grasp corporate governance it is essential to understand the embedded institutions. The research question is: Does an increase in legal quality cause an associated increase in the quality of corporate governance in the form of financial reports to investors? If so, this supports the fundamental importance of legal systems to earnings quality. Reliable evidence on whether there is an association between legal quality and financial reporting quality would be an empirical association showing that where legal quality is higher, earnings quality is also higher, and conversely.

Research Findings/Insights: The results show clearly that in 2005 and 2010, when adequate data are available for testing, earnings quality is poor: far more companies show small gains than small losses. A great deal of managerial discretion is exercised in arriving at accounting figures, since many amounts depend on forecasts of future events. A significant number of firms use that latitude to show positive earnings. As to patterns of earnings management among three clusters of countries, the small number of firms generally precludes strong statistically supported evidence of management within the clusters. Nevertheless, the whole is the sum of the parts, and the parts (clusters) indicate the clusters most responsible for the overall result. There is little evidence of small gains exceeding small losses in the Baltics, greater differences in the Visegrád countries, and big differences in southern Europe.

Theoretical/Academic Implications: Based on both (a) the historical background of legal systems and (b) attitudes concerning legal quality measured at the same time as the earnings measures, the accounting results are consistent with the prediction of a strong legal culture driving effective corporate governance.

Practitioner/Policy Implications: The results show that eastern firms, on aggregate, have yet to reach the level of their western counterparts. However, the differences do not seem highly significant, and indicate that convergence is close in this area. This, in turn, should guide and encourage legislators in their work.     

Research on China＇s Direct Investment to EU Under the Background of European Debt Crisis

近年来,中国对欧盟的直接投资出现了爆发式增长。欧洲主权债务危机的爆发及持续蔓延,引发了对全球经济“二次探底”的担忧,也给中国对欧盟直接投资带来了新的问题。本文在实证分析的基础上,认为中国对欧投资的超常增长并不是金融危机以来才发生的;欧债危机虽给中国企业对欧投资提供了机遇,但也带来了更多的障碍和风险。因此,要继续扩大对欧直接投资,就必须正确认识中国对欧盟直接投资的战略意义,厘清存在的障碍和风险,从而有针对性地对欧盟内部不同的区域市场和行业进行直接投资。     

经济一体化、公司所得税竞争与FDI流动研究——以新老欧盟成员国的税收竞争为例

本文在Ottaviano(2005)的税收竞争模型的框架下,分析了在经济一体化条件下公司所得税竞争对资本流动的影响,并利用实证研究论证了欧盟内新欧盟成员国与老欧盟成员国之间的公司所得税竞争对FDI流动的影响。分析表明,欧洲市场一体化程度的加深是导致税收竞争加剧的最主要原因。东道国降低名义公司所得税率对资本流动没有影响,只有相对于母国实际税率的降低才是影响资本流动的关键因素。     

中国与欧盟人口老龄化问题比较研究

中国与欧盟的老龄化模式不同,在人口老龄化的原因、过程及社会经济后果等方面具有不同的特征。欧盟国家在应对老龄化社会问题方面所采取的措施及其经验值得我国借鉴。在比较分析中国与欧盟人口老龄化过程、原因、后果的基础上,研究欧盟国家应对人口老龄化问题的措施及对我国的启示。应不断深化社会福利制度改革,规避人口老龄化经济风险;整合各种养老资源,完善现代养老保障体系;适时调整人口发展相关政策,优化未来人口年龄结构。     

Consumer Ethics in the European Union: A Comparison of Northern and Southern Views

There is a growing interest in understanding consumer ethical actions in relation to their dealings with firms. This paper examines whether there are differences between Northern and Southern European Union (EU) consumers' perceptions of ethical consumer behaviour using Muncy and Vitell's (1992) Consumer Ethics Scale (CES). The study samples 962 university students across four Northern EU countries (Germany, Denmark, Scotland, The Netherlands) and four Southern EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece). Some differences are identified between the two samples, which might question the ability of organisations to consider the EU as one homogeneous market.     

中国与欧盟和东盟的贸易特点及影响因素比较——基于引力模型的实证分析

本文首先比较了中国与两大区域经济集团——欧盟和东盟的贸易特点,然后通过引力模型分析了影响中国与欧盟和东盟贸易的因素,并就各个因素所带来影响的不同进行了对比。结果表明,中国与东盟贸易的GDP弹性较大,而中国与欧盟贸易的人均GDP弹性较大。本文认为,前者的原因在于中国与东盟贸易更具潜力,后者主要是因为中国与欧盟的贸易互补性更强。     

欧盟食品安全技术法规体系的产生、发展现状及展望

欧盟食品安全体系被誉为全球最为成功的食品安全体系之一,而欧盟健全的食品安全技术法规体系,成为整个欧盟食品安全体系建设的重要基石。本文深入研究了欧盟食品安全技术法规产生和发展的各个阶段,阐述欧盟食品安全立法的运作模式,分析了欧盟现行“从农场到餐桌”全过程的食品安全技术法规体系建设的重点和所发挥的作用,并对今后欧盟食品安全技术法规体系建设的重点做了展望。