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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2010‒02‒27
thirteen papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta University of Modena and Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Arvind Ashta (CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France and Centre Emile Bernheim, CERMi, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Djamchid Assadi (CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France) |
| Abstract: | Purpose of the paper: With the development of web 2.0, a new kind on lending is taking place on the internet, termed peer to peer lending or social lending. In Europe, this includes commercial lending websites such as Zopa, smava, boober, Kokos, Monetto. At the same time, following the lead of Kiva in the US, European microcredit web platforms are coming up including MyC4 and Babyloan in Europe. The paper examines how the legal design of the online websites differs from the microcredit websites in Europe and how this impacts social performance issues of the different models. Design/Methodology/Approach: Since the population size of these websites is rather small, we use a comparative case study approach. The case study approach is the most adapted to studying small samples in more detail. The case studies are based on exploring of websites and review of academic literature and press reports. Key results: We find that although web2.0 permits platform models, most sites (commercial or micro-lending) have retained intermediary roles and have not permitted direct peer to peer contact. The paper will outline the advantages to both borrowers and lenders in the different models and their motivations. Challenges for expansion, such as trust-building as well as a marketing analysis will also be presented. Impact: The findings would lead microfinance institutions to lobby for specific laws, and invest in online lending solutions to radically reduce operating costs as well as to increase outreach. Value: This research would add value to those who are operating in or launching new online microcredit platforms to understand this young and fast changing marketplace. |
| Keywords: | online lending, regulation, social performance, microfinance |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-059&r=eur |
| By: | Proost, Stefan; Dunkerley, Fay; van der Loo, Saskia; Adler, Nicole; Bröcker, Johannes; Korzhenevych, Artem |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the economic justification for the selection of priority projects defined under the auspices of the Trans-European transport network. In analyzing the current list of 30 priority projects, we apply three different transport models to undertake a cost-benefit comparison. We find that many projects do not pass the cost-benefit test and only a few of the economically justifiable projects would need European subsidies to make them happen. Two remedies are proposed to minimize the inefficiencies in future project selection. The first remedy obliges each member state or group of states to perform a cost-benefit analysis (followed by a peer review) and to make the results public prior to ranking priority projects. The second remedy would require federal funding to be available only for projects with important spillovers to other countries, in order to avoid pork barrel behaviour. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/260624&r=eur |
| By: | Catherine Costa; Michelle Osborne; Xiao-guang Zhang; Pierre Boulanger; Patrick Jomini (Productivity Commission) |
| Abstract: | The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has undergone significant reform since the early 1990s, with the aim of improving its market orientation. There is an increasing focus on breaking the link between direct income payments and production decisions — so called 'decoupling'. Expenditure on the CAP accounts for about 46 per cent of total EU budgetary expenditure, or over 50 billion Euros. The majority of expenditure is in the form of direct income payments to farmers. Expenditure also includes market price support and rural development programs. The European Union also assists its agricultural sector with various border protection measures including import duties and other non-tariff barriers. In this study, economic impacts of the CAP are evaluated using the GTAP model. According to the modelling results, the effects of the CAP include - higher output of the farm and food processing sectors in the European Union, of about 8 and 6 per cent respectively; lower output of the EU manufacturing and services sectors; lower GDP in the European Union of about 0.3 per cent, or $US 52 billion. The additional farm and food output in the European Union is estimated to depress world prices for these goods by between 1 and 4 per cent. World prices for manufactured goods and services increase. These price movements induce a contraction in agriculture and food processing in non-EU regions, and an expansion in the manufacturing and services sectors. The estimated net effect of the CAP is to reduce global welfare by about $US 45 billion, with a cost to the European Union of $US 30 billion. The largest contributor to this welfare loss is the border protection component of the CAP. Important caveats to these modelling results apply. The estimates are sensitive to parameter choices, specific model features, and the structure of the database. In addition, the modelling does not capture some aspects of the CAP including the effects of cross-compliance measures, any impacts on productivity in the agricultural sector, and positive and negative externalities associated with the policy. Therefore, these results should be interpreted as only indicative of the magnitude of the economic impacts of the CAP. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission. |
| Keywords: | Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), food security, rural development, Global Trade Analysis Project, direct income payments, export subsidies, border protection, general equilibrium |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:prodsw:0903&r=eur |
| By: | Peter Schneider; Dieter Sadowski (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries efforts are undertaken to improve doctoral education. In the context of new public governance in the Higher Education sector, less state, more competition, less academic self-governance, more internal hierarchy and more influence by external stakeholders under the common roof of New Public Management (NPM) are considered most promising for successful PhD education. Therefore according to a steering model of American research universities many initiatives are undertaken to introduce more managerial elements in European university departments. Based on an explorative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data of 26 continental European, English and American economics departments, we investigate the steering effects of the five above mentioned governance dimensions in the years 2001 to 2002 on subsequent placement success of PhD graduates. To control the impact of resources on PhD education, next to governance regimes we added four different resource conditions to the analysis: financial resources, publication record of the department, total number of professors in a department and annual number of PhD graduates in a department, Using fuzzy-set QCA to analyze the data, our results deliver strong support for local best ways of steering configurations and no superiority of one system over the other. Introducing market elements though seems to be important in any governance system but only in combination with different co-conditions. In respect to our control conditions only financial resources contribute considerably to the understanding of steering PhD education. Our results strengthen the strong impact of competition as an effective governance instrument and take into account the relevance of financial resources. |
| Keywords: | New Public Governance, competition, higher education, PhD education, fsQCA |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:201001&r=eur |
| By: | Nadav Halevi; Ephraim Kleiman |
| Abstract: | This paper examines trade across the Mediterranean against the background of the efforts to foster both North-South and intra-South trade flows as engines of growth. We first consider the shares of these regions (and of the countries constituting them) in the trade of each other as indicators of trade importance; and relative trade intensity indices – the ratio of these shares to the corresponding ones in the trade of the rest of the world – as measures of trade affinity and as means of identifying 'natural' trade partners. Because of the sheer size disparity, trade with the North-Med is more important to the South-Med than the other way round. But both regions display trade affinities with each other, making them natural trading partners, though there are wide disparities between individual countries within each region. Insofar as being natural trading partners forms a criterion for economic integration, there are promising prospects for some form of integration between the countries on the North and the South littorals of the Mediterranean. Contrary to the popular view of Arab South-Med trade being dominated by cultural, religious and linguistic commonalities, our findings show that geography still matters: the Arab South-Med affinity with the group of EU countries not lying on the Mediterranean littoral is much lower than with those that do. Arab commonality also seems to be more important in the trade of the Levant than in that of the Maghreb, whose trade affinities with its former colonial powers suggest the colonial heritage there to be still of importance. More generally, the differences observed here between the Maghreb and the Arab Levant have relevance to the EU's Barcelona Process policy, which encourages the formation of a South Mediterranean Free Trade Area. The findings of our study suggest that though the Arab Levant constitutes indeed a natural trading area, this is not as true for the region as a whole. |
| Date: | 2009–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0227&r=eur |
| By: | Peter Schneider (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | We present an explorative analysis from qualitative and quantitative data of fourteen European economics departments for the years 2001 to 2003 and investigate how one component of a successful PhD education, which is socializing PhD students into the academic community, should be designed in order to support intercultural collaboration among PhD students. We employ Multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (MVQCA) to analyze the data. Our results reveal unique patterns of socializing strategies present in economics departments with either high or low intercultural collaboration among PhD students. It turns out that high intercultural collaboration is characterized by two configurations of different socializing strategies. In the first configuration we find that a “high number of foreign PhD students” in a department sufficiently explains high intercultural collaboration as it is realized in American research universities. In the second configuration we find that a combination of “different backgrounds in academic disciplines” among PhD students with “active support for research visits” sufficiently explains high intercultural collaboration. Low intercultural collaboration is characterized by three single strategies: “Financing attendance at academic conferences or events about once per year”, “no active support for research visits” and a “small number of foreign PhD students”. Each condition is sufficient to explain the outcome. The results for high intercultural collaboration are not affected by any of five resource conditions we added as controls. Low intercultural collaboration though was partly co-explained by low amounts of extra time among faculty and low financial resources of the department. The results indicate that high intercultural collaboration is not only supported by a socializing strategy typical for American research universities but can also be achieved by different socializing strategies. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:201002&r=eur |
| By: | Robert M. Feinberg; Mieke Meurs; Kara M. Reynolds |
| Abstract: | While others have examined the implementation and/or the stringency of enforcement of antitrust laws in post-socialist economies, this paper is the first study that attempts to explain the determinants of antitrust enforcement activity across post-socialist countries using economic and political variables. Using a panel of ten European post-socialist countries over periods ranging from 4 to 11 years, we find a number of significant determinants of enforcement in these countries. For example, larger economies engage in more antitrust enforcement, and countries have tended to increase their enforcement efforts over time. Our results also suggest that countries characterized by more unionization and less corruption tend to engage in greater antitrust enforcement of all types. Countries more successful in privatizing have filed fewer cases, while more affluent or developed countries investigate fewer cases of all types, consistent with an income-shifting motivation for antitrust. |
| Keywords: | Antitrust Enforcement, Central and Eastern Europe, Competition Policy JEL classification: L4, P3 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2010-05&r=eur |
| By: | Amelie Boje (University of Aberdeen); Ingrid Ott (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany); Silvia Stiller (Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI)) |
| Abstract: | In the intermediate and long run energy prices and hence transportation costs are expected to increase significantly. According to the reasoning of the New Economic Geography this will strengthen the spreading forces and thus affect the economic landscape. Other influencing factors on the regional distribution of economic activity include the general trends of demographic and structural change. In industrialized countries, the former induces an overall reduction of population and labor force whereas the latter implies an ongoing shift to the tertiary sector and increased specialization. Basically, cities provide better conditions to cope with these challenges than rural regions. Since the general trends affect all economic spaces similarly, city-specific factors also have to be considered in order to derive the impact of rising energy costs on future urban development. With respect to Hamburg regional peculiarities include the overall importance of the harbor as well as the existing composition of the industry and the service sector. The analysis highlights that rising energy and transportation costs will open up a range of opportunities for the metropolitan region. |
| Keywords: | urban development; regional specialization; structural change; demographic change; transportation costs. |
| JEL: | R11 J11 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:164&r=eur |
| By: | de Luna, Xavier (Umeå University); Stenberg, Anders (Stockholm University); Westerlund, Olle (Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine whether adult education delays retirement and increases labour force participation among the elderly, a mechanism suggested in the OECD strategy for “active ageing” and the “Lisbon strategy” of the EU. Using register data from Sweden, we analyse transcripts from adult education for the period 1979–2004 and annual earnings 1982–2004. We match samples of treated individuals, in adult education 1986–1989, and untreated on the propensity score. The timing of exit from the workforce is assessed by non-parametric estimation of survival rates in the labour force. The results indicate no effects of adult education on the timing of retirement. |
| Keywords: | Adult education; Retirement; Human capital; Labour supply; Pensions |
| JEL: | H52 H55 H75 I28 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2010_002&r=eur |
| By: | Arvind Ashta (Centre Emile Bernheim, CERMi, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France); Sophie Raimbault (CEREN, Burgundy School of Business (Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne), France) |
| Abstract: | France has a rather low rate of enterprise creation. Institutional analysis helps to explain why this is so. Nevertheless, in the last few years since 2003, France has been modernizing its legal framework to stimulate enterprise creation and this has achieved some success. A new regime of Auto-entrepreneur has recently been introduced in early 2009 as a new start up mechanism, creating a lot of buzz. This paper presents the new French regime and its accountancy and tax inputs, explaining the economic motivations of the new institution and its limitations. The paper presents results of a questionnaire administered to CEO's of small business enterprises on their perceptions of this regime. The research indicates that the entrepreneurship law is perceived to be risky for tax and social security revenues, lack of entrepreneurial capabilities, lack of social security net for failed entrepreneurs, and increased competition for small enterprises from their own employees. Future directions for research are indicated in entrepreneurship and microfinance, business regulation and globalization. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, microenterprise, microcredit, French law, socialism, capitalism, regulatory analysis. |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-058&r=eur |
| By: | Östh, John (Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden); van Ham, Maarten (School of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews, Scotland UK); Niedomysl, Thomas (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p> International marriages are both a result and a driver of higher levels of global mobility and interconnectivity. Increasing ease of air travel for work and leisure, rising numbers of individuals studying, working and travelling abroad, and the emergence of international partnering websites have expanded traditionally local marriage fields – the geographical areas where people meet the partner – to global proportions. This expansion has increased the chance of meeting a potential partner from abroad resulting in an increase in international marriage migration. Recruiting a partner from abroad is surrounded by prejudice and stigma. ‘Knowledge’ about the characteristics of the individual ‘importing’ a partner from abroad is often based on anecdotic evidence and myths. In this paper we explore the factors that determine the probability that a native Swede recruits a partner from abroad. Along with various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the Swede we will pay specific attention to the geographies of marriage migration: the opportunity structure. This study uses longitudinal population data for the whole of Sweden, containing information on all individuals who lived in Sweden between 1994 and 2004. The results from multinomial logistic regression models shed a unique light on gendered and geographic patterns of partner recruitment.<p> |
| Keywords: | Migration; International marriage; Marriage migartion; Demographic characteristics; Socioeconomic characteristics; Globalisation; Sweden |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2010–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2009_021&r=eur |
| By: | Brewer, M.; Muriel, A.; Phillips, D.; Sibieta, L. |
| Abstract: | In this Commentary, we assess the changes to average incomes, inequality and poverty that have occurred since Labour came to power in 1997, with a particular focus on the changes that have occurred in the latest year of data. This analysis is based upon the latest figures from the DWP's Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, published on 7 May 2009 (Department for Work and Pensions, 2009). The HBAI series takes household income as its measure of living standards, and is derived from the Family Resources Survey, a survey of around 25,000 households in the United Kingdom that asks detailed questions about income from a range of sources. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:ucllon:http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/18308/&r=eur |
| By: | Morgane Lindenberg (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Kim Oosterlinck (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | Reasons why organizations sponsor artistic and cultural events have attracted a lot of scholarly attention. However, understanding why organizations create and develop their own collections has remained largely under investigated. This is especially striking in the financial sector where companies are well-known for owning substantial art collections. This paper has been written in order to consider two distinct aspects: understanding why financial institutions in Belgium have begun to create their own art collections and how they developed them, and then suggesting a model which enables to categorize each actor according to their policies of acquisition and their managerial objective. |
| Keywords: | art collection, Belgian banks, communication management, patronage, typology |
| JEL: | Z11 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:10-011&r=eur |