Structural funds are the most intensively used policy instrument by the European Union to promote economic growth in its member states and to speed up the process of convergence. This paper empirically explores the effectiveness of European Structural Funds by means of a panel data analysis for...

In the U.S., the skill premium and the non-production/production wage differential increased strongly from the late 1970s onwards. Skill-biased technological change is now generally seen as the dominant explanation, which calls for theories to explain the bias. This paper shows that the...

This paper explores the economic consequences of the enlargement of the European Union with countries from Central and Eastern Europe. We focus on integration aspects that go beyond the reduction of formal trade barriers, namely accession to the internal market and free movement of labour. The...

Structural funds are the most intensively used policy instrument by the EuropeanUnion to promote economic growth in its member states and to speed up the process ofconvergence. This paper empirically explores the effectiveness of European Structural Fundsby means of a panel data analysis for 13...

We develop a model to analyze the social optimality of growth and product variety. The model contains two sectors, one assembly sector producing a homogeneous consumption good and one intermediate goods sector producing differentiated inputs. Growth results from R&D performed in the intermediate...

This paper explores the economic consequences of the enlargement of the European Union with countries from Central and Eastern Europe. We focus on integration aspects that go beyond the reduction of formal trade barriers, namely accession to the internal market and free movement of labour. The...

We explore the relationship between openness and growth by taking a closer look at trade-related knowledge spillovers at the industry level. First, we estimate the relation between sectoral R&D expenditures, trade-related spillovers, and growth. Next, we incorporate these R&D linkages in a...

Low skilled workers have been facing declining real wages during the 80s in the US, while high skilled workers gained in the same period.This decrease in the relative wage of the low skilled provoked a lively debate on the causes of the observed decline.A lot of academic authors have opposed to...