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The paper studies empirically the fiscal policy instruments by which governments try to influence election outcomes in 24 developing countries for the 1973-1992 period. The study finds that the main vehicle for expansionary fiscal policies around elections is increasing public expenditure rather than lowering taxes, and public investment cycles seem particularly prominent. Institutional mechanisms which constrain discretionary expenditure policies and which strengthen fiscal control are therefore worthwhile considering to prevent opportunistic policy making around elections.

This study was prepared by the Centre d'étude de la vie politique (Cevipol), part of the Institute for European Studies (IEE) and the Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques (FSP) of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). It provides a systematic and thorough account of candidate selection procedures for the European elections. It covers four aspects: (1) a general overview of candidate selection procedures in the major parties of all EU Member States; (2) a detailed account of the candidate selection procedures for a sample of countries/parties, based on an analysis of the formal and informal practices; (3) an investigation into the relations between national political parties, political groups in the EP, and the European political parties; and (4) the provision of recommendations as to how to improve the democratic quality of candidate selection for the European elections. ; IP/C/AFCO/IC/2013-053 ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Unions won 72 percent of all representation elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board in 2016, a four‐year high. Small units with 49 or fewer workers comprised 74 percent of the elections unions won.

Given that future generations are right-bearing citizens of tomorrow, legislative systems should secure these rights through appropriate institutions. In the case of the European Union, reference to intergenerational justice can be found in various fundamental legal texts, but, paradoxically, no institutions exist to defend it. The structural short-termism inscribed into representative democracies means that present interests easily trump future concerns. We argue that the best way to overcome this problem is a system of temporal checks and balances. By comparing a selection of existing instruments with regards to their impact on the legislative process, we propose the creation of a European Guardian for Future Generations as the most effective measure to protect the rights of future generations and provide an overview of recent developments in this direction.

Estonians for Europe provides a unique insight into nearly eighty years of the history surrounding European unification. Concentrating on Estonian aspirations for an integrative organization in international relations, the book illustrates a number of parallels and differences between commonly held narratives of twentieth-century European history

As part of national accounts, input-output tables are becoming crucial statistical tools to study the economic, social and environmental impacts of globalization and international trade. In particular, global input-output tables extend the national dimension to the international dimension by relating individual countries' input-output tables among each other, thus providing an opportunity to balance the global economy as a whole. Concerning emissions of greenhouse gases, the relative position that countries hold among their main trade partners at the global level is a key issue in terms of international climate negotiations. With this purpose, we show that (official) Multi-country input-output tables are crucial to analyse the greenhouse gas emission trade balance of individual countries. Spain has a negative trade emissions balance for all three gases analysed, being the most negative balances those associated to the bilateral trade with China, Russia, United States and the rest of the European Union as a whole ; Junta de Andalucía. SEJ 132 ; Cátedra de economía de la energía y del medio ambiente (Universidad de Sevilla) ; Fundación Roger Torné ; Ministerio de economía y competitividad (España). ECO 2014-56399-R

Macroeconomic determinants of FDI are seldom analyzed from the perspective of source countries, priority being generally given to host country characteristics. In a gravity set-up, we analyze FDI flows from European Union to MENA economies. We find that European investment to our MENA host countries is higher, the lower the source country output volatility, thereby supporting the existence of an income effect for European Transnational corporations. In the case of MENA economies, source country output volatility's adverse impact on FDI is counterbalanced by the positive attraction effect of domestic swings of activity. We also find that 1995's Barcelona agreement has reinforced MENA countries' vulnerability to European short- and medium-term macroeconomic cycles. The emergence of non-traditional sources of European FDI is, however, a positive evolution since Eastern and Central European investment to MENA countries is less sensitive to host and source country macroeconomic volatility that traditional Western and southern European sources tend to be. Our results are robust to various changes in estimator, sample composition or measurement of instability.

The development of a common European defense policy based on the notion of dual use, defined as research & development that can be applied toward both civilian & military activities, is stressed. An overview of contemporary research on European security emphasizes problems with European definitions of research & development. It is argued that the adoption of a common foreign & security policy under the Maastricht Treaty has facilitated the European Commission's defense policy decision making. The Fifth Framework Program for Research & Technological Development is analyzed to demonstrate how EU policy has influenced European security & defense research. After illustrating that the aforementioned framework has failed to properly contemplate the implementation of a dual use agenda, multiple strategies for ensuring that dual use programs are integrated into future European security policy are offered. It is concluded that dual-use objectives will not be incorporated into European research & development until the EU establishes a coherent security policy. 14 References. J. W. Parker