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This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of EU support between 2006 and 2015, and of electoral behavior during the European Parliament elections. In light of the Eurozone financial and debt crisis, it also examines how political and economic turbulences have affected EU citizens' stance on democracy and their support for EU institutions. It explores measures taken in the context of the Euro crisis management and the reactions of EU citizens, in order to shed new light on the determinants and developments of EU support. The author highlights the heterogeneity of the developments between the member states and identifies social, political, and economic facets of the crisis that have changed the ways citizens form their political attitudes towards the EU. The book delivers a profound account of the Euro crisis, integrating approaches from political economy, psychology, sociology, and public opinion research. It will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in learning more about the declining citizen support in the EU and the heterogeneous developments in the member states, which may significantly endanger the long-term existence of the European Union

The circular economy has become one of the main strategic issues on a global scale in the striving towards achieving sustainable economic systems. The traditional model of production, consumption and disposal is being transformed into a recycling and waste integration process from the beginning of the production cycle of a product until its full use by the consumers. While measuring the progress towards a circular economy can be a challenging factor, several indicators can be used to evaluate developments in this direction. That is why recycling in general, as well as recycling of municipal waste, have become a main strategic issue in the process towards implementation of circular economy principles. The main objective of the paper is to elaborate a panel regression model for determining the dependency between main indicators, that are indicating progress of the circular economy in Europe, such as the recycling rate of municipal waste, circular material use rate, R& ; D expenditure by all sectors, trade in recyclable raw materials and environmental tax revenues, resource productivity and domestic material consumption. Furthermore, the fixed and random effects regression models estimations are included and tested through the Durbin&ndash ; Hausman&ndash ; Wu statistic. The research in this study is based on the analysis of regressions in the circular economy fields in the European Union and intends to contribute to the research in the field, being an emerging scientific topic due to changing technological, economic and environmental factors.

Defence date: 19 September 2016 ; Examining Board: Professor Sven Steinmo, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Alexander Trechsel, European University Institute; Professor Henry Farrell, George Washington University; Professor Bastiaan Van Apeldoorn, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ; This dissertation is a collection of three stand-alone papers each making distinct contributions and addressing different, but closely related, empirical puzzles that contribute to the literature on Internet privacy. The first article starts by exploring some of the tangible consequences of the Snowden revelations and challenges the common-wisdom culturalist theories of Europe's privacy regime. Then, the second article offers a new explanation of the origins of America's privacy framework that also defies conventional culturalist explanations. Finally, the third article closes by offering a novel implementation and policy design analysis of the American and European privacy regimes. Each article employs slightly different research methods and uses different yet compatible and complementary theoretical frameworks. In general, this dissertation adopts an institutionalist perspective studying how and why certain institutions change, and "why some flourish in some context and/or why some die out in others" (Steinmo, 2003a). The first article focuses on institutional reform, and resistance to institutional reform by corporate actors, following Culpepper's quiet politics framework (2011). The second article, borrowing from Steinmo (2003b) and Blyth (2002, 2011), discusses the interaction between ideas and institutions, following perhaps the clearest institutionalist narrative of all the pieces of this dissertation. The third article, building on Rothstein's general theory on implementation (Rothstein, 1998) discusses the implementation and policy design of the European and American institutions for the protection of privacy.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: The Role of Government in Economic Development -- PART ONE Institutional Aspects of Market Development -- 2 Banks Versus Markets as Mechanisms for Allocating and Coordinating Investment -- 3 Financial Instruments for Consumption Smoothing by Commodity-Dependent Exporters -- 4 Intellectual Property Rights for Appropriate Invention -- 5 The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries -- 6 The Role of Financial Institutions in Industrial Restructuring and Investment Coordination: The Implications for Certain ASEAN Developing Countries -- PART TWO The East Asian Experience and Pro-Market Planning for Economic Development -- 7 Industrial and Agricultural Investment Coordination Under "Plan" and "Market" in China -- 8 Industrial Policy in Japan and South Korea: Some Causes of Success -- 9 The Visible Hand and Economic Development: The Case of South Korea -- 10 Japanese Economics: The Theory and Practice of Investment Coordination -- Epilogue -- About the Contributors.

The main object is to research the export of Lithuanian companies to European countries, also, to research the most popular export stimulating instrumentalities and the ways of development and to analyze the changes in Lithuanian fish production export to European Union after Lithuania has joined it. Also, using "Viciunai group" export information and experience, to research what increases export and what decreases it, also to determine the biggest problems, which are blocking export to European Union countries and to show the ways of decisions. In the magistracy paper, using a sample of "Viciunai group" the reasons, which are mostly stimulating or blocking company's export to European Union are researched. Using "Viciunai group" exports information and the experience, the changes in company's export after joining EU are analyzed. The meaning of Lithuanian export development ways to "Viciunai group" export development is also presented. The main company's export development motives are researched and company's export department's and export market's structure is analyzed. In the end of the paper there are conclusions and recommendations, corresponding to research results. The paper contains: 65 pages, 6 tables, 17 exhibits. 56 literature sources were used.

The main object is to research the export of Lithuanian companies to European countries, also, to research the most popular export stimulating instrumentalities and the ways of development and to analyze the changes in Lithuanian fish production export to European Union after Lithuania has joined it. Also, using "Viciunai group" export information and experience, to research what increases export and what decreases it, also to determine the biggest problems, which are blocking export to European Union countries and to show the ways of decisions. In the magistracy paper, using a sample of "Viciunai group" the reasons, which are mostly stimulating or blocking company's export to European Union are researched. Using "Viciunai group" exports information and the experience, the changes in company's export after joining EU are analyzed. The meaning of Lithuanian export development ways to "Viciunai group" export development is also presented. The main company's export development motives are researched and company's export department's and export market's structure is analyzed. In the end of the paper there are conclusions and recommendations, corresponding to research results. The paper contains: 65 pages, 6 tables, 17 exhibits. 56 literature sources were used.

This article summarizes the Lisbon Strategy's aims for improving the European economy and increasing employment and describes the poor behavior of the European job markets from 2000 to 2004, highlighting the differences between thejob markets in the northern European countries and those in the rest of Europe. Finally, the article states that the latter countries should put into greater effect the reforms that the Lisbon Strategy requires. ; Este artículo, tras síntetizar los ambiciosos objetivos de la Estrategia Lisboa en materia de empleo, describe el pobre comportamiento laboral de la UE-25 desde 2000 a 2004, constatando al propio tiempo las notables diferencias laborales que se dan entre los países del norte y el resto de Europa. El artículo sostiene, finalmente, que el deficiente comportamiento de los mercados laborales de los países del centro y sur de Europa les obliga a tomarse más en serio las reformas requeridas por la Agenda de Lisboa.

Numerous Central and Eastern European countries have restructured their regional level of public administration in the context of their accession to the European Union. Focusing on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the article studies how the EU has influenced the institutionalization of regions and regional self-government. Regionalization may have been driven mainly by EU conditionality or, as a competing explanation suggests, more by domestic factors. The article argues that the EU altered the opportunity structure faced by domestic actors but that its role was more complementary than decisive. Czech and Slovak governments instrumentalized a perceived EU conditionality to promote their own political objectives. These findings demonstrate that a top-down concept of conditionality lends itself to fallacies and should be substantiated by reconstructing the domestic politics of Europeanization.

Each market and thus every economy thrives on growth. It is certainly indisputable that founders of new businesses in the sense of an entrepreneur can contribute to this growth through their activities. They are creating jobs, pay taxes and may help suppliers to gain new contracts. Unfortunately, it is not always made easy for entrepreneurs. The thesis "European Private Equity-Funds for Entrepreneurs and the Impact on Market Growth within the Boundaries of the European Union" is concerned with the unpleasant situation for entrepreneurs, that they often are unable to finance their idea, their start, because access to funds or financing through banks is often difficult or unavailable due to lack of securities. It follows an approach to facilitate access to funds for entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, banks are currently not passing the low interest rates on to entrepreneurs. In these cases, Private Equity funds can help. However, confusing and especially inconsistent tax regulations provide for the partial caution on the Private Equity market. For example, up until today there are different sales tax treatments of the management fees and hardly any uniform tax rates. The aspired tax harmonization so far is insufficient. Therefore, this work determines fiscal parameters optimized for tax purposes in such a way that it will become more clearly, for Private Equity companies to launch such a fund. This in turn, will indirectly grant entrepreneurs a better access to funds. This is based on the assumption that a tax-optimized fund, therewith meaning a uniform taxation, will create incentives for investors and investment companies to launch new funds, which in turn will be able to supply founders with money. In Chapter 1, therefore, the question is asked: Which countries of the European Union are, in regards to Venture Capital investments, measurably successful and share among each other such similarities that their conditions for optimized tax conditions may be taken in to consideration? Chapter 2 deals with the Private Equity concept whereas in basics three actors are involved in such a transaction. They are the investors, the Private Equity firms and the target company. Whereas the Private Equity firms launch the Private Equity fund and collect the money from the investors. That these companies play a prominent role in this construct is recognized by the fact that they are also responsible for the distribution of the money to the target companies. Furthermore, the economic significance of Private Equity in the European Union is being covered in this chapter. Thus, Private Equity is quite significantly involved in the gross domestic product throughout the EU. However, these figures also illustrate that still too little is being invested in such constructs. This happens even though the positive effects such as job creation are undisputed. In order to correctly classify this and to be able to determine the gross domestic product as the most important figure of this work at a later point, the neo-classical and Keynesian growth theories have been examined, whereas Keynes has certainly experienced a renaissance in the EU. The fundamental consideration and motivation for this work has been that entrepreneurs need to be helped. They have to have access to funding. However, the challenging legal framework and thus the tax classification partially obstruct the investment in new ideas. Chapter 3 deals with the legal framework of selected countries in the European Union. It discusses the AIFM Directive 2011/61/EU. Here, the countries of Austria, Luxembourg and Germany were considered in detail. This directive led to various discussions as to the tax legislation of the national states. However, it has been found that this directive hardly establishes obstacles in regards to fiscal issues. Only the consideration of whether the fund is a commercial or non-trading application can yet act detrimental. However, it could also be determined in that chapter that the taxation overall and thus also for Private Equity funds differs greatly throughout the countries of the EU. In Chapter 4, those countries of the EU are being determined, that are similar to each other in regards to their willingness to invest, applying a hierarchical cluster analysis with the parameters of Private Equity investments, Private Equity investments per capita, Venture Capital investments, Venture Capital investments per capita, the gross domestic product (GDP) and the GDP per capita. Thereafter, these parameters were supplemented by their corporate taxes to filter out groups still showing similarities to each other. The result of this selection by identifying similarities in their investment behavior while taking parameters such as corporate tax, the Purchasing Power Standard (PPS) and the Gross Domestic Product per capita into account, is that even countries exposed themselves, which certainly have not necessarily been outstandingly recognized prior to this study (see figure 2). Quite the opposite is the case. Economic giants like France and Germany are significantly vacating the top ranking positions. The selected countries – excluding Norway and Switzerland, which are not Member States of the European Union – in turn have been examined as to their tax parameters of capital gains taxes, withholding taxes and company taxes and their willingness to invest in Venture Capital. These were then summarized and each converted into a unitary tax rate. The calculation showed that with average tax rates of 14.29% capital gains tax, 14.60% withholding tax and a company tax of 22.89% an average per capita GDP of 53.720 euros and a PPS of 154.6 (the reference value is 100) can be expected. These tax rates are attended by an average willingness to invest in Venture Capital – the instrument so important to entrepreneurs – of the qualified countries of approximately 0.09% of the overall Gross Domestic Product. Thus, if all future foundation activities were based on the tax-efficient and fiscally unified "FONDS EUROPAEA", the markets of the national states of the European Union would in long term settle at a uniform per capita Gross Domestic Product - and thus for most resident of the Member States a significantly higher per capita GDP. The FONDS EUROPAEA initially serves the holding companies by offering them tax-optimized and simplified conditions. However, in the end it is eventually beneficial especially to entrepreneurs, whose financing problems would disappear based on the increased activities of the holding companies. ; Administración y Dirección de Empresas