The member states of the European Union are once again arguing about money. More specifically, they are arguing about how much they want to spend on defence, where this money should come from and whether they should spend it jointly. That Europe needs to defend itself better is not in dispute in...

Building a Single Market working better for citizens, consumers, and businesses, supported by strong Customs Union enhancing Europe's economic security. The European Commission proposes €6.2 billion for the Single Market and Customs Programme: - merging four EU funding streams - Single Market,...

A major step towards liberalizing the EU Internal Market for services was taken in 2006 with the EU Services Directive. This study quantifies its impact on EU trade in services and real income and identifies untapped potential due to remaining administrative barriers and weak enforcement of...

Europas Wettbewerbsfähigkeit steht unter Druck. Die Produktivitätslücke gegenüber den USA hat sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten stetig vergrößert, besonders im Technologiesektor, wo die Produktivität US-amerikanischer Unternehmen massiv gestiegen ist, während sie in Europa weitgehend...

We use heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences (DiD) methods to evaluate the impact of membership in the European Union (EU) Single Market on international trade. On the policy front, we provide evidence that: (i) On average, the EU has been very effective in promoting trade among its...

Services account for 72% of GDP and three quarters of total employment in the EU. The performance of services in themselves is therefore a major determinant of EU economic performance, but services also matter for the competitiveness of all industries as many services are inputs into production....

Services account for 72% of GDP and three quarters of total employment in the EU. The performance of services in themselves is therefore a major determinant of EU economic performance, but services also matter for the competitiveness of all industries as many services are inputs into production....

Focusing on a cross-border perspective, this paper identifies four key binding constraints that hinder firms' ability to innovate and scale up within the EU single market-fragmented regulations, inefficient financial intermediation, limited labor mobility, and fragmented energy market. To...