The extent of social and economic issues has an impact on current society, and ways of solving them reflect not only on social policy but also on results of economic policies. The paper aims to evaluate the effects of social protection expenditures/benefits in relation to selected socio-economic...

This paper highlights an underexplored margin of heterogeneity that shapes resilience to disruptions in global shipping - the differential reliance of countries and sectors on specific categories of vessels. We combine US bills of lading records with ship registry and AIS-based port call data to...

This paper estimates the causal impact of Brexit on migrant employment in the United Kingdom using a synthetic difference-in-differences (SDID) framework. We construct a counterfactual trajectory for the UK based on a weighted combination of comparable European economies and compare...

The use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, or smart devices will go hand in hand with higher productivity, higher product quality, and lower trade costs. Therefore, it can be expected to be positively related to export activities. This paper uses firm level data for...

Like many newer EU Free Trade Agreements, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) includes commitments concerning labour and social standards and environment and climate policy under the title the 'Level Playing Field'. This title includes non-regression provisions, which prohibit reducing or...

This paper highlights an underexplored margin of heterogeneity that shapes resilience to disruptions in global maritime trade - the differential reliance of countries and sectors on specific categories of vessels. We combine US bills of lading records with ship registry and AIS-based port call...

We investigate the role of speculation in the European natural gas market over the period 2020- 2024, a period marked by extreme price volatility driven by the energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Replicating the framework of Knittel and Pindyck (2016), we disentangle the...

Informal care is a cornerstone of long-term care for older adults but may entail substantial psychological costs for caregivers. Using seven waves (2004-2022) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for 27 countries, we estimate the causal effect of providing regular...

In the modern globalized context, innovation represents a key driver of economic growth, while international trade plays an important role in fostering it. This study examines the relationship between the degree of trade openness and innovation performance across 27 EU member states over the...

This paper focuses on an empirical analysis of the relationship between investing and saving, taking into account various economic regions. The economic aggregates are selected following the International Monetary Fund (IMF) standard classification. The investigation is developed within the...

This study examines the influence of social capital, intellectual capital, resource rents, and investment capital on the economic performance of the 18 member states of the European Union from 2005 to 2022. Principal component analysis and factor analysis are employed to construct composite...

This study provides new evidence on how production digitalization investment affects firm financial performance across diverse European regions. A panel of 14,935 firm-year observations from 30 countries (2012-2022), including a focused Baltic subsample, is used alongside a refined digital...

This paper contributes to current debates surrounding the digital euro and US stablecoins by unpacking the present day relevance of two important episodes in monetary history: Prussia's effort in the 18th century to implement a uniform coinage standard across the Holy Roman Empire, and the 19th...

Expected goals (xG) are widely used to evaluate football performance. However, it is unclear whether players who consistently outperform their xG do so because of skill or because of luck. To our knowledge, this paper provides the first meta-analytic estimate of between-player heterogeneity in...

Prior studies assessing welfare across countries have utilised measures that combine country-level outcomes in income and life expectancy. However, this perspective remains blind to the fact that two countries may have the same life expectancy and/or average income but very different underlying...

Hosting mega-sports events generates optimistic projections of economic benefits, yet empirical evidence on actual local returns remains mixed. Focusing on the UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany, this paper provides causal evidence on the short-term local consumption effects of hosting mega-events. We...

This open access short reader provides an introductory yet critically analytical exploration of migration and the politics of integration. Drawing inspiration from Nira Yuval-Davis' concept of the 'politics of belonging,' we define the 'politics of integration' as various political projects...

Using a survey of 39,507 adults in 17 euro-area countries, I find that crypto-asset owners and the niche subgroup of payers have distinct profiles. Owners - typically younger, male, and financially active - exhibit mixed preferences, valuing both cash-like privacy and card-like speed. Crypto...

This article investigates how regions' ability to pursue sustainable development trajectories affects individual subjective well-being. In particular, it disentangles the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability by examining the relative role of social capital, public safety, and...

This paper combines international evidence from worker and firm surveys conducted in 2025 and 2026 to document large gaps in AI adoption, both between the US and Europe and across European countries. Cross-country differences in worker demographics and firm composition account for an important...

This paper examines the impact of the European Union's Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 on enterprise dynamics at the NUTS-2 level. Using discrete eligibility thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita, we implement sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to assess effects on...

This paper evaluates EU Cohesion Policy interventions during 2014-2020 using regression discontinuity design (RDD), exploiting funding thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita across 281 NUTS-2 regions. The analysis examines nominal and real GDP per capita growth, GDP per...

This report takes stock of gender equality in ECA, with a particular focus on women’s access to economic opportunities and jobs, alongside the urgent challenge of VAWG. It highlights the World Bank Group–supported initiatives across the region, illustrating both the range of solutions being...

This year, the Subnational B-READY series covers 66 cities across six EU Member States - Czechia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Spain - covering 64 European regions. In Ireland, Subnational B-READY covers five cities in five regions at the NUTS3 level: Cork (South-West), Dublin (Dublin),...

This study investigates technical efficiency scores and performance change patterns by applying the tourism-induced Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the Eurozone from 1996 to 2019. The study uses direct employment in tourism and capital investment spending directly related to the travel and...

This paper examines how financial development shapes total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) across the European Union (EU-27) and Western Balkans (WB-6) via a two-stage methodology. We develop DEA-based TFEE indicators from 2006 to 2021 via a window approach that reflects short- and medium-term...

This study examines public debt sustainability in the Eurozone by estimating fiscal reaction functions that assess how fiscal balances respond to rising public debt under heterogeneous macroeconomic conditions. Using annual panel data for 20 EU countries from 2000 to 2024, we employ fixed...

This paper examines the relationship between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in European Union member states using a dynamic panel framework. Using an unbalanced EU panel from 2002 to 2022 and an Arellano-Bond difference-GMM specification, we model inward FDI inflows per...

Digital transformation is a key driver of economic and social progress, and assessing its evolution is essential for guiding public policies. In the European Union (EU), until 2022 the European Commission published the quantitative values of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI); however,...