Suchergebnisse

The academic and political discussion about which countries met the conditions for joining the Economic and Monetary Union was decisively influenced by the Frankel and Rose (European Economic Review, Vol. 41, Nos 3–5, (1997) pp. 753–760) hypothesis concerning endogenous optimum currency areas (OCA) properties. The answer to their question 'Is EMU more justifiable ex post than ex ante?' was a definite yes in their ex ante analysis. Our ex post examination of the euro's first decade suggests however that the hypothesis does not hold for some countries. This paper utilizes panel data estimation techniques to compute OCA indices that help assess the OCA endogeneity hypothesis and signal current external and fiscal imbalances.

The academic and political discussion about which countries met the conditions for joining EMU was decisively influenced by the Frankel and Rose (1997) hypothesis concerning endogenous OCA properties. The answer to their question "Is EMU more justifiable ex post than ex ante?" was a definite yes in their ex ante analysis. Our ex post examination of the euro's first decade suggests however that the hypothesis does not hold for some countries. This paper utilizes panel data estimation techniques to compute OCA indices that help assess the OCA endogeneity hypothesis and signal current external and fiscal imbalances.

Plans for an early adoption of the euro by some new EU members are hanged up on political will and a set of nominal criteria. The focus, however, should be on the available adjustment mechanisms supporting a permanently fixed exchange rate. Efficient financial markets could provide stabilisation (following a shock), substituting the weakened array of traditional policy instruments. In order to assess the availability of such alternative, this paper presents a particular empirical analysis of efficiency in three recently acceded countries' foreign exchange markets. The results suggest that some caution is needed in the transition towards full monetary integration, as the level of financial efficiency already attained may be insufficient to ensure an adequate source of stabilisation in economies affected by specific disturbances.

Intro -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Contents -- Editors and Contributors -- The Future of the Eurozone: A Reflection Paper on the North/South Divide -- 1 Introduction -- 2 About North and South -- 3 The European Crisis of the 2010s: A Tale of Sins and Expiation? -- 3.1 Public or Private Profligacy? -- 3.2 Current Account Imbalances: Whose Sin? -- 3.3 Inevitable Expiations or Crisis Mismanagement? -- 4 What Is the Nature of the Eurozone? -- 5 NEZ and SEZ Policy and Ideology Cleavages -- 6 Reforms on Which NEZ and SEZ Might Agree -- 6.1 A Common Fiscal Capacity -- 6.2 A New Set of Fiscal Rules -- 6.3 A Fiscal Stance of the Eurozone -- 7 Conclusion -- References -- European Monetary Union and the COVID-19 Crisis: A Tightrope Act with the Risk of Falling -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Developments in the Euro Area Before the COVID-19 Crisis -- 2.1 Insufficient Real Economic Convergence and Inequality -- 2.2 Danger of Deflation -- 2.3 The ECB Keeps the Monetary Union Together -- 2.4 Fiscal Policy Has Failed -- 2.5 Unfinished Banking Union -- 3 Lessons from Historical Developments -- 3.1 Wage and Deflation -- 3.2 Fiscal Policy as a Long-Term Task -- 3.3 Monetary Policy as Lender of Last Resort -- 3.4 Debt as an Obstacle to Future Development -- 4 Conclusions for the EMU -- Literature -- Europe at the Crossroads of the COVID-19 Crisis: Integrated Macroeconomic Policy Solutions for an Asymmetric Area -- 1 Introduction -- 2 COVID-19 Crisis: Exogenous Shock Versus Cyclical Crisis -- 2.1 The Cyclical Dynamics of the Post-1973-1975 Crisis -- 2.2 Consequences for the Global Economy -- 3 The European Union Integration: A Distressed and Divergent Process -- 3.1 Real Convergence and Inequality -- 3.2 Euro Area Current Accounts -- 4 The Current Crisis: Challenges for European Governance -- 4.1 Immediate Responses -- 4.2 Short-Term Challenges.

This book adopts a comprehensive approach, combining the views of economists and political scientists, to assess the threats of maintaining the non-collaborative stance that prevailed in the response to past crises, and to explore new solutions to the present emergency. The coronavirus pandemic represents a serious test for the continued existence of the European Monetary Union. It has worsened pre-existing divisions among its members and highlighted the urgent need to address institutional and governance problems that were already apparent in the aftermath of the financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis, but have now gained in relevance following the more widespread impact of the disease across the European Union. This book discusses concrete strategies to overcome the current challenges, focusing on the need to build an effective economic and monetary union. It also reflects on ways of pursuing conformity with discipline and coordination rules while also adopting a more collaborative stance that has so far been absent in the Eurozone and has consistently undermined the political and social dimensions of the common currency project.

Is foreign direct investment crossing Europe towards the East? During the last few years, news of foreign direct disinvestments have regularly emerged on the Portuguese media. The group of suspects have been identified as the new European Union members, where low wages, low corporate taxes and a highly educated labour force seems to attract multinationals eager to cut costs in an economy slowly recovering from recession. The clues of investment displacements abound, but no definite proof has yet been found in the empirical literature. This paper considers the available evidence, contributing to avoid possibly unfair incriminations.

The change of economic, social and political orientation in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), together with their expressed intention of joining the European Union (EU) in a foreseeable future, have raised a number of challenging questions. One object of interest has been the implications of Eastern openness in terms of international capital reallocation. This paper concentrates on the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI), which is considered a major channel of economic integration. In fact, in the particular case of these countries, a dramatic change in the pattern of FDI inflows took place in recent years. A number of studies have surveyed the determinants of FDI to this region but the issue still remains relatively unexplored from the empirical point of view. Using a random effects panel data model in the analysis, we try to empirically uncover the main determinants of FDI and to examine the probability of FDI diversion from the EU periphery to these transition economies. This issue is especially interesting for the EU periphery in general, and for cheap labour suppliers such as Portugal in particular, since there are reasons to believe that 'the east may be getting what would otherwise come south'.

The coexistence in EMU of one common monetary policy and several domestic fiscal policies raises a number of problems of both academic and political interest. First, there are reasons to assess a hypothetical need to also centralise fiscal policies in such circumstances, according to what prevails in federal states. Second, given that this hypothesis has not reached consensus in the EU, nor is it expected to do so in the near future, the issue of how to co-ordinate monetary and fiscal policies, in order to achieve the desired outcomes in both global and individual terms, arises. Third, the fact that policy spill-overs are enhanced in the EMU, the need to avoid free riding behaviour on the part of member states and the apparent non-reliance on financial markets to discipline sovereign debtors led to the option of restricting the autonomy of domestic fiscal policies by setting up constraints upon the relative levels of deficits and debts. Due to these restrictions, it is important to investigate the existence of alternative options in case of economic shocks that are specific to an economic area, or that do not equally affect all EMU members. Theory suggests that financial markets, when integrated, can provide relief by supplying the means to finance recovery. However, the lack of integration, uncovered by empirical analyses especially in peripheral EU areas, indicates that financial markets cannot be fully relied upon as mechanisms of adjustment. The current study analyses these topics of interest for monetary and fiscal policies in EMU.

This article investigates the impact of trade openness and renewable energy on the consumption of fossil fuels for a panel of fourteen LAC countries over the period from 1990 to 2014. To this end, a PARDL model in unrestricted error-correction form is estimated, and robustness checks are performed by estimating a PNARDL model. The results of the PARDL model point indicate that the impact of economic growth and elasticity of trade openness are statistically significant at the 1% level and contribute to increased consumption of fossil fuels in the LAC countries. However, the impact and elasticity of consumption of renewable energy are statistically significant at 1% and 5% levels and thus contribute to decreasing consumption of fossil fuels. Nevertheless, the asymmetry of the impact of consumption of renewable energy and its elasticity decrease the consumption of fossil fuels. Therefore, the positive impact of trade openness on the consumption of fossil fuels suggests that the process of globalisation by trade liberalisation in the LAC countries is not sufficient to bring more investment that encourages R&D in energy efficiency technologies, and equipment that reduces the consumption of energy from non-renewable energy sources by households and firms.

Abstract
Transition to university is a challenging phase in youngsters' lives. The literature indicates that geographical distance separating the places of study and of family residence adds to the difficulties of transition and adjustment to university. Recent evidence suggests that it also negatively impacts students' grades. Despite important work done by economists, geographers and psychologists, sociology has devoted scarce interest in understanding this topic. This article seeks to bridge this gap, specifically exploring the reasons justifying the largely ignored effect of distance between the university and family home in academic performance. The study draws on data on undergraduate students of a Portuguese public university, collected through an online survey. Two dimensions, one more related to practical life occupations and another more linked to personal feelings and activities, are examined. It is argued that the negative impact of distance is mainly due to homesickness and to the time spent traveling home. Results from such analysis are twofold socially relevant: of the utmost importance for families, academics and students' support services, deserve to be seriously considered by policy makers deciding on the territorial distribution of higher-education institutions.

This study explores the interrelationships between tourism dependence, government management of tourism, perceived tourism benefits and perceived tourism costs, and support for sustainable tourism development (STD). A quantitative research design was adopted. The data collection was performed through a personal survey conducted to 300 residents of a small historic town within the Douro World Heritage Site (Lamego town).The results suggest that government management of tourism has a positive and significant impact on perceived tourism benefits and costs. The effect of government management of tourism in fostering residents support for STD was also empirically supported. Additionally, the effect of perceived tourism benefits on residents support for STD was also supported empirically. However, economic dependence on tourism does not have a significant effect either on perceived benefits, on perceived costs or on the residents support for STD. Also, perceived negative impacts are not a predictor to measure support for STD. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Recognising the crucial role of higher education for the development of nations and individuals, many countries have recently established ambitious targets for the percentage of graduates in their population by 2020. In peripheral European Union countries, however, such objectives may be difficult to attain. In fact, both the current stringent fiscal consolidation processes and the overall depressed economic environment may exert negative effects upon domestic demand for higher education. Such uncertain context increases the need for efficient policies and henceforth the value of obtaining reliable information on the variables that are more likely to influence demand. In this study, we employ the partial least squares methodology, which allows modelling with many variables, even with relatively few observations, to identify the most relevant determinants of demand for higher education. We focus in the case of Portugal, a country where applications for higher education are centralised and thus provides a long and reliable set of data on aggregate demand. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that the most relevant determinants of demand are institutional and/or policy dependent and, therefore, may be controlled by decision makers and managed to support national strategic objectives. These results, obtained for Portugal, are also useful particularly for other southern European Union countries, which share some of the Portuguese economic, social, demographic and cultural characteristics.