The information technology sector in Europe, comprising the production of computer hardware and software, is disproportionately located on the continent's western periphery. The vast bulk of computers sold in Europe in the 1990s were assembled either in Ireland or Scotland, while Ireland also...

This paper observes that de-industrialisation has been mostly relative in Europe, with industrial value added and employment shrinking in relative terms, but industrial value added growing in absolute terms – at least until recently. Qualitatively, this relative de-industrialisation has been...

The "financing gap" measures the need of external funds for the corporate sector as the difference between gross "capital formation" and "savings". Taking advantage of the recent release of data in the ESA95 standard, this paper assembles a set of stylized facts about the corporate financing gap...

We present some stylised facts about the composition of public investment in Europe and analyse its determinants, with a special focus on the role of fiscal decentralisation. The empirical analysis is conducted both for levels of different types of public investment and for their shares in total...

This paper offers an updated description of the macroeconomic and sectoral significance of PPPs in Europe - without assessing PPPs from a normative perspective. Builidng on Blanc-Brude et al. (2007), it looks at the evolution of PPPs in the EU, with a particular focus on the recent financial...

Theoretical literature suggests a variety of reasons why a public-private partnership (PPP)should exhibit higher costs of construction than traditionally procured public infrastructure projects. The bundling of construction and operation contracts in a PPP give the private partner greater...

This paper offers an updated description of the macroeconomic and sectoral significance of PPPs in Europe, without assessing PPPs from a normative perspective. It shows that, over the past fifteen years, more than one thousand PPP contracts have been signed in the EU, representing a capital...

This survey outlines the characteristics and drivers of the phases of European industrial policy over the last century and attempts some conclusions about policy impacts. The first liberal phase and the second, ultimately autarkic, phase were ended by war. The third phase terminated with the oil...