Based on a sample of 1,084 European regions (EU 15) over the period of 1995–2004, we estimate the determinants of regional growth of GDP per capita, allowing for both spatial lag and spatial error dependence. We find that robust LM tests cannot reject the null hypothesis of no spatial...

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive policy. Distributive policies aim at correcting market outcomes according to politi-cally determined objectives usually through transferring money from richer to poorer house-holds. We compare the...

The Water Framework Directive requires EU Member States to analyse economic impacts of the Directive's implementation. To reach a "good status", instruments have to be judged according to their cost-effectiveness. We evaluate costs and effects of measures to reduce nitrate emission of Austrian...

Austria was hit by a large-scale flood in 2002. The damage was estimated at € 2.9 billion and the EU Solidarity Fund classified the Austrian flood as a major event. It triggered a vast number of studies analysing the causes of the disaster, and efforts were made to evaluate the measures taken...

In January 2003, the EU Commission published details of the proposed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Core elements of this reform are the reduction of intervention prices (for grain and milk) and the decoupling of direct payments from production. Several countries (including Austria)...

With milestone agricultural policy parameters determined in the second half of 2005, it is possible to forecast the sector's development up to 2014-15. The steep decline in the production of key agricultural goods observed in Austria since 1995 should level off since prices are expected to...

WIFO introduces a set of key indicators to describe trends and developments in the fields of climate change und the energy sector. These key indicators are designed to provide transparent and easily accessible information to an economically interested public of developments in Austria that are...

Up to 2000, prices in the agricultural produce markets were on a steady downward course, a trend that was at last and substantially reversed in 2002. Since then prices of key agricultural products have exploded, the consequence of interventions in the farm markets motivated by agricultural and...