While many studies have documented deviations from the Law of One Price in international settings, evidence is scarce on the extent to which consumers take advantage of price differentials and engage in cross border shopping. We use data from 287 Swedish municipalities to estimate how responsive...

The order and modalities of cross-member state redistribution as well as the net financial position of the member states are one of the most widely discussed aspects of European integration. The paper addresses selected issues in the current debate on the EU budget for the period 2007 to 2013...

The paper reviews and evaluates in a non-technical manner the economic and political arguments for and against the two fiscal convergence criteria written into the Treaty of Maastricht and its Protocols. In order to qualify for full membership in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), net general...

The so-called Constitutional Treaty (CT) of the EU, currently in the middle of the ratification process, is seen by its advocates as a major step for the advancement of European integration, conciliating simultaneously a democratic deepening, a more efficient decision- making process in the EU,...

The aim of the paper is firstly provision of an analysis of the perception of the EU a year after the accession. It is shown that the population of the Czech Republic is shortly after accession rather sceptic about the EU integration. This serves as a context for a discussion the European...

The governance of tax policy is one of the key issues that must be resolved by the new Constitution. Taxation is an area in which the tension between subsidiarity and coordination is acute. This paper reviews recent Union policy alongside an analysis of the underlying economic issues. The...

The experience of other successful monetary unions and economic theory suggest that the euro area would benefit from the establishment of a supranational fiscal capacity. Institutional reforms prompted by the crisis (e.g., the European Stability Mechanism and the banking union) are introducing...

This paper investigates the changing nature of economic integration in China. Specifically, we consider business-cycle synchronization (correlation of demand and supply shocks) among Chinese provinces during the period 1955–2011. We find that the symmetry of supply shocks has declined after...

Globalization, technological changes and the information revolution are phenomena that affect the ways in which different levels of government allocate their public resources and expenditures. This paper examines one aspect of the problem: the decentralization of the subnational public sector...