This paper analyses the euro as external anchor in the Western Balkans and their process of fiscal consolidation in the context of future EU accession.

Study on the adjustment capacity to shocks of EU candidate and potential candidate countries of the Western Balkans, with a focus on labour markets, and background studies on several countries of the region. The main question addressed in this study is the performance of the labour markets in...

This paper reviews the economic debate surrounding both the opportunities and the challenges arising from European monetary union. It is organised in two parts. Part I examines the economic environment in EMU, analysing the role of markets and the macro-economic framework. It finds that the...

Measures aimed at reducing the tax burden on labour have been advocated to alleviate the EU unemployment problem. Most of the analyses document a relationship between the unemployment rate and the tax burden on labour. Hence, it is not possible to discern whether the effect on unemployment...

This paper introduces a statistical model for short-term GDP forecasting based on approximate dynamic factors, Stock and Watson methodology, extracted from a very large number of leading indicators at several lags. Given that factor extraction is performed on many series from all countries of...

This paper analyzes the size and the determinants of unexpected changes in EU countries' tax revenues and their impact on the ability of EU governments to use fiscal policy as a macroeconomic stabilisation device. We make use of information taken from the Stability and Convergence Programmes...

This paper studies external deficits in the Baltics between 1995 and 2007.It uses a calibrated small-open-economy dynamic general equilibrium model incorporating a financial accelerator to assess to what extent deficits can be explained by productivity growth, fall in spreads and increasing...

Employment protection and unemployment benefits are considered as the most prominent insurance devices for workers to protect themselves against the risk of unemployment. It occurs that societies either choose a high level of employment protection relative to unemployment benefits or vice versa....

The political distortions in public investment projects are investigated within the context of a bipartisan political economy framework. The role of scrapping and modifying projects of previous governments receives special attention. The party in government has an incentive to overspend on large...

Total health care expenditure in the EU countries accounts for between 4 and 11% of GDP, out of which between 3 and 9% of GDP is financed from public sources. As it accounts for between 10 and 18 % of total government spending, health care is therefore among the most significant items of social...