This paper intends to further understanding of catastrophic events by reviewing the economic literature on their effects as well as potential means of dealing with the corresponding risks and uncertainties. Since 2000, the world has seen a number of catastrophes including terrorist attacks in...

This paper proposes a new approach for creating country indices and applies it to the construction of an index ranking countries according to their current level of competitiveness in international goods exchange. Existing indices largely assign equal or in some other way arbitrary weights to...

This study analyzes the economic consequences of power rationing at the level of German counties. Based on a common production function approach, it estimates the costs of power outages for firms and households in all counties and uses these estimates to derive hypothetical rationing plans for...

This paper sets out to investigate the changing patterns of electricity intensity in European manufacturing for the time span 2000-2011. While GVA in Manufacturing has grown and electricity use has declined, it is not clear that this decrease in intensity is directly associated with improvements...

This study investigates the incidence of overeducation among workers in the EU and its underlying factors based on the most recent wave of the European Labor Force Survey (EU-LFS 2013). Its main purpose is to shed light on the interplay of so far neglected explanatory factors such as household...

This paper analyses the macroeconomic implications of a future shift in the age structure of the Swiss population. It estimates the long-run effects for Swiss GDP growth and its components in an Overlapping Generations Model (OLG model). Recent population projections by the Federal Statistical...

The paper at hand discusses the different typologies of combined transportation in Europe. It shows that an improvement of handling infrastructure for combined transport can positively reduce environmental costs of trading between regions. However, the expected emission reduction effects are...

This paper analyzes the future market perspectives for biodegradable bio-based plastics at the global and the European level. Relevant determinants of demand are identified, categorized and used as a basis for own projections. By implementing a system dynamics approach, the evolution of global...

This paper reviews recent results of the literature on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) regarding the ecological impacts of alternative and innovative feedstocks for the production of bio-based and biodegradable polymers. The analysis was undertaken for the following popular polymers /...

This paper conducts a meta-analysis of the estimated costs of producing Polylactic Acid (PLA). Cost contributions of specific inputs and process stages are identified through a production chain perspective. By applying the Monte Carlo technique, uncertainties in current estimates are reflected,...