This Report analyses and compares a number of indicators related to the evolution of the competitive behaviour of firms in the Single Market, from 1999 to 2007, in a selected number of both manufacturing and services industries and eight EU countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Poland,...

Building on the empirical evidence resulting from a newly developed database of foreign direct investment (FDI) operations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs), panel data techniques are used to show that, at the sector level, a consistent modelling of FDI flows needs to take...

This paper evaluates how different types of speculation affect the volatility of commodities' futures prices. We adopt four indexes of speculation: Working's T, the market share of non-commercial traders, the percentage of net long speculators over total open interest in future markets, which...

Several papers have proven that the institutional environment of the receiving country can influence the choice to establish an FDI. Property rights theory suggests that contract enforcement matters differentially across sectors. This paper is the first attempt to test whether institutions...

This paper investigates how the ownership and the procedure for the selection of firms operating in the local public transport sector affect their productivity. In order to compare different institutional regimes, we carry out a comparative analysis of 72 companies operating in large European...

Abstract The literature shows that when a society believes that wealth is determined by random “luck” rather than by merit, it demands more redistribution. Adverse shocks, like earthquakes, strengthen the belief that random “bad luck” can frustrate the outcomes achieved with merit. We...

Abstract A society that believes wealth to be determined by random “luck” rather than by merit, demands more redistribution. The theoretical literature shows that any increase in the volatility of income caused by unpredictable adverse shocks implies a higher support for redistribution. We...

This paper describes the energy sector in the Mediterranean and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries. It first analyses the production of energy by fossil and renewable sources and discusses the increasing demand in the area and its consequences. It describes the policy frameworks to...

Based on two strands of theoretical research, this paper provides new evidence on how fares are jointly affected by in-flight seat availability and purchasing date. As capacity-driven theories predict, it emerges that fares monotonically and substantially increase with the flights occupancy...