The European Union’s (EU) role in international trade has evolved from a defensive position during the 1960s and 1970s, to being a firm supporter of a rule-based multilateral trading system as a member of the Quad (US, EU, Japan and Canada) in the 1980s and to a role in which it aspires to...

Dale T. Mortensen (born 1939) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2010 jointly with Peter A. Diamond and Christopher A. Pissarides for his work on the analysis of markets with search frictions. Together, they developed the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides Model (DMP model): an equilibrium...

The EU budget is a tool through which money is collected and allocated for EU policies and objectives as well as for the tasks transferred to it from the national level. This article starts by presenting the concept and evolution of the EU budget. It then discusses the principles and procedures...

A two-part tariff is a pricing scheme according to which the buyer pays to the seller a fixed fee and a constant charge for each unit purchased. When it is used, the average price paid decreases as more units are purchased. Further, it is the marginal charge and not the fixed fee that determines...

The introduction of the euro in 1999 is without any doubt one of the great achievements in the European integration process. In one bold stroke, national monetary sovereignty was abolished and transferred to a new European institution, the European Central Bank, that from then on became the...

Professor Christopher Pissarides was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen ‘for their analysis of markets with search frictions’. Though Pissarides is best known for his work in this area, it is only part of a very extensive research agenda...

This article provides a brief overview of the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a driver of productivity. In particular, it focuses on the diffusion of computers and the Internet at the workplace and discusses the relationship with wages, the task composition of...

Risk arbitrage involves the purchase of a target firm's shares on the announcement of a merger or tender offer. These transactions provide a risky profit opportunity when the price of the target is below the risk-adjusted expected value of the final takeover price. This article explores the role...

We provide an overview of the rapidly evolving literature on shadow credit intermediation. The shadow banking system consists of a web of specialised financial institutions that conduct credit, maturity, and liquidity transformation without direct, explicit access to public backstops. The lack...

The open source model is a form of software development in which the source code is made available, free of charge, to all interested parties; further users have the right to modify and extend the program. Open source software (OSS) methods rely on developers who reveal the source code under an...