Academic literature on the topic 'Macroeconomics – European Union countries'

Decarbonization is an activity aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change and global warming. Ensuring macroeconomic stabilization is the basis for ecological action. The question is whether macroeconomic stabilization helps companies, institutions and countries act for decarbonization. This article presents research on the impact of components of macroeconomic stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency in the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the European Union from 1990 to 2020. We focus on the following countries, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. The contribution to knowledge is using the pentagon of macroeconomic stabilization to assess macroeconomic stabilization’s impact on decarbonization and energy efficiency. According to the correlation coefficients, the Ordinary Least Squares and the Seemingly Unrelated Regression method, there is a statistically significant impact of components of macroeconomics stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency. Moreover, our models show a different strength and direction of relationships between the explained and explanatory variables. Research results confirm the necessity to coordinate the macroeconomic with environmental policy. We think that it is essential to use effective tools of economic support (European Union Emissions Trading System, environmental taxes) and greater pressure from European Union institutions on countries that emit harmful substances.

The article describes the current tendencies of the development of income differentiation processes in the countries of the European Union during the last 10 years. According to the analysis of the i mpact of income inequality on the economy of the countries, there is an inverse relationship between the growth of the gap between the income of different groups of people and the economic development. In order to confirm this conclusion and calculate the real index of income inequality, the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model has been developed. The authors analysed three macroeconomics objects (household, firm, government), relationships between them and made their own model of eight equations. After that, the index of income inequality of all 27 current members of the European Union has been calculated for the last 10 years. The result shows in the general negative tendency. That is why it is important to choose the right strategic direction for the future development of the country. This DSGE model is a universal model and can be applied to other regions of the world after calibration of the parameters. The improvement of the model is about its expansion by adding other sources of income to get more accurate results. As a conclusion of the article, there was analysed the main directions of reforming the European economy in order to achieve sustainable development.

Sharing activities are receiving greater attention due to increasing popularity in recent years. This article focuses on how the use of digital sharing platforms by customers to share products and services helps to increase the saving of natural resources and support sustainable development. In the paper, the authors investigated the main elements affecting ICT based sharing. (1) Literature review: The theoretical part starts with the revision of definitions of sharing activities; descriptions of the links between sharing and sustainable development, policy recommendations, and relevant regulation in the field. Further on, the study emphasises key elements, including ICT ones, that are important for sharing. Finally, the authors investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected sharing activities in previously published studies. (2) Methods: During empirical research, the authors revised a list of 33 variables, among which are 16 indicators describing network infrastructure, internet literacy and online shopping. The study uses data for each of the 27 EU countries from 2011 to 2020. The authors investigated correlations between macroeconomics and other variables to determine key variables for the regression model. (3) Results: The authors constructed a dynamic regression model that can be applied to predict the number of participants visiting digital sharing platforms in the European Union (EU). (4) Conclusions: The study shows that, when seeking to forecast the number of visits to digital sharing platforms, it is necessary to use values of main macroeconomic and ICT variables. Among these variables, ICT based indicators are highly dominating.

Purpose The last great financial crisis which arose in the middle of 2007 in the USA produced contagion effects over others economies. The purpose of this paper is focused on analyzing the evolution of a set of economic variables of 17 European countries since 1991 until 2013. Sovereign bond spreads are also considered to compare the incidence of the financial crisis over the economies considering macroeconomics fundamentals and fixed bonds. Design/methodology/approach Self-organizing maps (SOMs) are used to achieve the purpose of the research. With this methodology, it is possible to analyze the evolution of the macroeconomic fundamentals of each country, obtaining particular and general conclusions according to the position of each country in the SOM. Moreover, the countries are compared between them and with its respective sovereign bond spreads level for each year of analysis. Findings The impact of the crisis is different between the countries was analyzed. Belonging to the European Monetary Union is an interesting characteristic of some of the most affect economies. Research limitations/implications This research presents wide implications for the economies to control the most vulnerable economic variables in front of financial crisis to prevent the contagion effect. The inclusion of more economic variables and countries could enhance the study. Originality/value This research analyzes the relationship between macroeconomic variables and sovereign bond spreads using an infrequent methodology. The results obtained are valuable because they highlight how the present crisis has differently affected the European countries.

- Answering the round table participants, the author illustrates the project of this book and its main findings. While the book implies a focus on social policy, the contributors have brought to it their expertise not only in welfare economics but also in macroeconomic and monetary policy. This article outlines how social policy relates to these economic issues, and adopts an international political economy approach both in explaining hierarchies among countries, and in calling into question the "efficiency/equality trade off" as a useful instrument in comparing the economic performance of Europe and the US. Finally, the article discusses the issue of a possible convergence between the social models of Europe towards those of the best performing countries.EconLit Classification: D600, E120, F300, F400, F500Keywords: Welfare Economic, Growth, Globalization, Open Economy Macroeconomics, European Monetary UnionParole chiave: Welfare state, Crescita, Globalizzazione, Macroeconomia delle economie aperte, Unione monetaria europea

In the light of the controversial discussion on the cause and effects to the total economy of the high export surplus of one country and their consequences for other countries, the concrete question as to whether high German balance on current account surplus mentioned is indeed responsible, as alleged, for macroeconomic divergence in the European Union or for balance on current account deficits in other European countries will is addressed in this paper. We examine how and to what extent German export success represents a lasting threat to the stability of the Eurozone and impedes economic recovery in instable countries in the south, or whether it can even offer those countries better chances to overcome crisis and stabilise their economy. The study suggests that politically enforced shrinkage of German exports accompanied by a weakening of the German economy scarcely benefits deficit countries. Due to the very close intertwining of German industrial intermediate inputs import trade with European crisis partner countries, with their great demand for German investment goods exports, a decrease in German exports would not only cause a drop in their exports, but it would also whittle down the basis for public European financial help for handling crisis, help for which Germany provides a large proportion of the liability.

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to analyze if the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries converge towards the twenty-eight members of the European Union. The relationships between the selected macroeconomic variables and per capita GDP growth rate are econometrically tested to support this research. The analyzed period is 2004–2017, with two sub-periods: 2004–2008 and 2009–2013. The subdivision is made to test whether the recent financial crisis affected the absolute and conditional convergence process in the analyzed group of countries. The empirical findings support the economic convergence hypothesis. The results show that the recent financial crisis negatively affected the absolute and conditional convergence process, when economic variables are included in the analysis. The negative effects of the crisis on conditional convergence with economic and socio-political variables are not identified. The poorer countries in the analyzed group should do more to attract investment and open their economies, as gross fixed capital formation and economic openness have a positive impact on per capita growth, and keep low inflation or stabilize it, while general government debt and unemployment should be decreased in the examined sample of countries.

European integration and the identification of obstacles to full membership in the European Union. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological and theoretical basis of the article is the fundamental provisions of economic theory, the works of scientists and economists in the field of international economic relations and integration. Findings: The article explores the problems of Ukraine’s integration into the EU. The study analyzed the attitude of Ukrainians towards European integration, identified the main arguments for and against accession to the EU countries, as well as the main internal and external threats of the integration process. It has been determined that in recent years the proportion of the population that has supported Ukraine’s accession to the EU has significantly increased. From the integration into the EU, Ukrainians primarily expect to expand the space of their own capabilities and the country's internal development in accordance with modern world trends. It is concluded that the population considers a high level of corruption in the country, problems in the Donbass and the inefficiency of public administration as the main obstacles to this process. Most residents of Ukraine consider it necessary to implement European reforms, but the consequence of their implementation has identified significant problems in terms of their real social effect. It is determined that Ukraine in some macroeconomic indicators lags significantly behind the EU countries, continues to lose its position in the global ranking of countries in terms of economic competitiveness, and remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. A significant problem for the development of Ukraine is the labor migration of the population and, in particular, the increase in the number of illegal migrants - Ukrainians in Europe. The main achievements in the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU are analyzed and the main threats to the further European integration are identified. It is concluded that Ukraine needs to develop its own “action plan” for the possibility of realizing national interests, taking into account the interests of the parties involved in the integration process. Originality/value: The mood of Ukrainian society, the current position of the state, the main obstacles and priorities that Ukraine faces on the way to the EU have been analysed in detail.

The purpose of the presented research is to assess pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in European Union countries in 2009 and 2019. The study used a synthetic measure developed using the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) benchmark method. This method enables distinguishing classes and ranks of countries depending on the adopted characteristics. Basic measures of descriptive statistics, i.e., average, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation, were used in the analysis of the data set. The main research question addressed in this study concerns the relationship between the level of PEB and economic, demographic, and educational factors—not only on a micro scale but also from the macroeconomic perspective. The research has revealed a wide variety throughout the European Union (EU-27) countries in terms of pro-environmental behaviour. Sweden, Finland, and Denmark top the ranking, while Malta, Greece, Spain, and Romania are at the bottom of it. Northern European countries can therefore be identified as a group that represents a positive benchmark in terms of PEB across the European Union (EU-27). The correlation between PEB and selected economic, demographic, and education-related variables was also investigated. Country-level PEB is correlated with demographic and economic variables, but it is not correlated with education-related variables.

This study develops a model of macroeconomic and political determinants of public support for European integration. The research is conducted on pooled cross-sectional time-series data from five European Union member states between 1978 and 1994. The method used in this analysis is a Generalized Least Squares - Autoregressive Moving Average approach. The factors hypothesized to determine a macroeconomic explanation of public support for integration are inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. The effect of the major economic reform in the 1980s, the Single European Act, is hypothesized to act as a positive permanent intervention. The other determinants of public support are the temporary interventions of European Parliament elections and the permanent intervention of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. These are hypothesized to exert a negative effect. In a fully specified model all variables except economic growth and European Parliament elections demonstrate statistical significance at the 0.10 level or better.

The diploma thesis analyses macroeconomic development of five selected new member countries of the European Union, concretely the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus, Latvia and Bulgaria. The paper is divided into two periods of development - the period of pre-accession preparation ending in 2004 and the period since accession till the present, when the statistics have already been influenced by the global economic crisis. The comparison has been based upon the fundamental macroeconomic indicators such as GDP growth, rate of inflation, rate of unemployment or state of public finances. At the end of each chapter, a brief final summary of development of the examined countries in particular period is stated. The last chapter treats the involvement of new member states in the integration process, namely the country presidency of European Council. Till the present, only the Czech Republic and Slovenia presided the European Council. Other new member countries are yet to fulfil this duty. The integration process is being gradually joined by other, nowadays candidate countries, whose economic situation is also briefly described in chapter three. The aim of the paper is thus to evaluate the economic development of new member states of the EU, comparing the period before and after accession.

This thesis addresses three relevant macroeconomic issues: (i) why

Central Banks behave so cautiously compared to optimal theoretical

benchmarks, (ii) do monetary variables add information about

future Euro Area inflation to a large amount of non monetary

variables and (iii) why national saving and investment are so

correlated in OECD countries in spite of the high degree of

integration of international financial markets.

The process of innovation in the elaboration of economic theory

and statistical analysis of the data witnessed in the last thirty

years has greatly enriched the toolbox available to

macroeconomists. Two aspects of such a process are particularly

noteworthy for addressing the issues in this thesis: the

development of macroeconomic dynamic stochastic general

equilibrium models (see Woodford, 1999b for an historical

perspective) and of techniques that enable to handle large data

sets in a parsimonious and flexible manner (see Reichlin, 2002 for

an historical perspective).

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models (DSGE) provide the

appropriate tools to evaluate the macroeconomic consequences of

policy changes. These models, by exploiting modern intertemporal

general equilibrium theory, aggregate the optimal responses of

individual as consumers and firms in order to identify the

aggregate shocks and their propagation mechanisms by the

restrictions imposed by optimizing individual behavior. Such a

modelling strategy, uncovering economic relationships invariant to

a change in policy regimes, provides a framework to analyze the

effects of economic policy that is robust to the Lucas'critique

(see Lucas, 1976). The early attempts of explaining business

cycles by starting from microeconomic behavior suggested that

economic policy should play no role since business cycles

reflected the efficient response of economic agents to exogenous

sources of fluctuations (see the seminal paper by Kydland and Prescott, 1982}

and, more recently, King and Rebelo, 1999). This view was challenged by

several empirical studies showing that the adjustment mechanisms

of variables at the heart of macroeconomic propagation mechanisms

like prices and wages are not well represented by efficient

responses of individual agents in frictionless economies (see, for

example, Kashyap, 1999; Cecchetti, 1986; Bils and Klenow, 2004 and Dhyne et al. 2004). Hence, macroeconomic models currently incorporate

some sources of nominal and real rigidities in the DSGE framework

and allow the study of the optimal policy reactions to inefficient

fluctuations stemming from frictions in macroeconomic propagation

mechanisms.

Against this background, the first chapter of this thesis sets up

a DSGE model in order to analyze optimal monetary policy in an

economy with sectorial heterogeneity in the frequency of price

adjustments. Price setters are divided in two groups: those

subject to Calvo type nominal rigidities and those able to change

their prices at each period. Sectorial heterogeneity in price

setting behavior is a relevant feature in real economies (see, for

example, Bils and Klenow, 2004 for the US and Dhyne, 2004 for the Euro

Area). Hence, neglecting it would lead to an understatement of the

heterogeneity in the transmission mechanisms of economy wide

shocks. In this framework, Aoki (2001) shows that a Central

Bank maximizing social welfare should stabilize only inflation in

the sector where prices are sticky (hereafter, core inflation).

Since complete stabilization is the only true objective of the

policymaker in Aoki (2001) and, hence, is not only desirable

but also implementable, the equilibrium real interest rate in the

economy is equal to the natural interest rate irrespective of the

degree of heterogeneity that is assumed. This would lead to

conclude that stabilizing core inflation rather than overall

inflation does not imply any observable difference in the

aggressiveness of the policy behavior. While maintaining the

assumption of sectorial heterogeneity in the frequency of price

adjustments, this chapter adds non negligible transaction

frictions to the model economy in Aoki (2001). As a

consequence, the social welfare maximizing monetary policymaker

faces a trade-off among the stabilization of core inflation,

economy wide output gap and the nominal interest rate. This

feature reflects the trade-offs between conflicting objectives

faced by actual policymakers. The chapter shows that the existence

of this trade-off makes the aggressiveness of the monetary policy

reaction dependent on the degree of sectorial heterogeneity in the

economy. In particular, in presence of sectorial heterogeneity in

price adjustments, Central Banks are much more likely to behave

less aggressively than in an economy where all firms face nominal

rigidities. Hence, the chapter concludes that the excessive

caution in the conduct of monetary policy shown by actual Central

Banks (see, for example, Rudebusch and Svennsson, 1999 and Sack, 2000) might not

represent a sub-optimal behavior but, on the contrary, might be

the optimal monetary policy response in presence of a relevant

sectorial dispersion in the frequency of price adjustments.

DSGE models are proving useful also in empirical applications and

recently efforts have been made to incorporate large amounts of

information in their framework (see Boivin and Giannoni, 2006). However, the

typical DSGE model still relies on a handful of variables. Partly,

this reflects the fact that, increasing the number of variables,

the specification of a plausible set of theoretical restrictions

identifying aggregate shocks and their propagation mechanisms

becomes cumbersome. On the other hand, several questions in

macroeconomics require the study of a large amount of variables.

Among others, two examples related to the second and third chapter

of this thesis can help to understand why. First, policymakers

analyze a large quantity of information to assess the current and

future stance of their economies and, because of model

uncertainty, do not rely on a single modelling framework.

Consequently, macroeconomic policy can be better understood if the

econometrician relies on large set of variables without imposing

too much a priori structure on the relationships governing their

evolution (see, for example, Giannone et al. 2004 and Bernanke et al. 2005).

Moreover, the process of integration of good and financial markets

implies that the source of aggregate shocks is increasingly global

requiring, in turn, the study of their propagation through cross

country links (see, among others, Forni and Reichlin, 2001 and Kose et al. 2003). A

priori, country specific behavior cannot be ruled out and many of

the homogeneity assumptions that are typically embodied in open

macroeconomic models for keeping them tractable are rejected by

the data. Summing up, in order to deal with such issues, we need

modelling frameworks able to treat a large amount of variables in

a flexible manner, i.e. without pre-committing on too many

a-priori restrictions more likely to be rejected by the data. The

large extent of comovement among wide cross sections of economic

variables suggests the existence of few common sources of

fluctuations (Forni et al. 2000 and Stock and Watson, 2002) around which

individual variables may display specific features: a shock to the

world price of oil, for example, hits oil exporters and importers

with different sign and intensity or global technological advances

can affect some countries before others (Giannone and Reichlin, 2004). Factor

models mainly rely on the identification assumption that the

dynamics of each variable can be decomposed into two orthogonal

components - common and idiosyncratic - and provide a parsimonious

tool allowing the analysis of the aggregate shocks and their

propagation mechanisms in a large cross section of variables. In

fact, while the idiosyncratic components are poorly

cross-sectionally correlated, driven by shocks specific of a

variable or a group of variables or measurement error, the common

components capture the bulk of cross-sectional correlation, and

are driven by few shocks that affect, through variable specific

factor loadings, all items in a panel of economic time series.

Focusing on the latter components allows useful insights on the

identity and propagation mechanisms of aggregate shocks underlying

a large amount of variables. The second and third chapter of this

thesis exploit this idea.

The second chapter deals with the issue whether monetary variables

help to forecast inflation in the Euro Area harmonized index of

consumer prices (HICP). Policymakers form their views on the

economic outlook by drawing on large amounts of potentially

relevant information. Indeed, the monetary policy strategy of the

European Central Bank acknowledges that many variables and models

can be informative about future Euro Area inflation. A peculiarity

of such strategy is that it assigns to monetary information the

role of providing insights for the medium - long term evolution of

prices while a wide range of alternative non monetary variables

and models are employed in order to form a view on the short term

and to cross-check the inference based on monetary information.

However, both the academic literature and the practice of the

leading Central Banks other than the ECB do not assign such a

special role to monetary variables (see Gali et al. 2004 and

references therein). Hence, the debate whether money really

provides relevant information for the inflation outlook in the

Euro Area is still open. Specifically, this chapter addresses the

issue whether money provides useful information about future

inflation beyond what contained in a large amount of non monetary

variables. It shows that a few aggregates of the data explain a

large amount of the fluctuations in a large cross section of Euro

Area variables. This allows to postulate a factor structure for

the large panel of variables at hand and to aggregate it in few

synthetic indexes that still retain the salient features of the

large cross section. The database is split in two big blocks of

variables: non monetary (baseline) and monetary variables. Results

show that baseline variables provide a satisfactory predictive

performance improving on the best univariate benchmarks in the

period 1997 - 2005 at all horizons between 6 and 36 months.

Remarkably, monetary variables provide a sensible improvement on

the performance of baseline variables at horizons above two years.

However, the analysis of the evolution of the forecast errors

reveals that most of the gains obtained relative to univariate

benchmarks of non forecastability with baseline and monetary

variables are realized in the first part of the prediction sample

up to the end of 2002, which casts doubts on the current

forecastability of inflation in the Euro Area.

The third chapter is based on a joint work with Domenico Giannone

and gives empirical foundation to the general equilibrium

explanation of the Feldstein - Horioka puzzle. Feldstein and Horioka (1980) found

that domestic saving and investment in OECD countries strongly

comove, contrary to the idea that high capital mobility should

allow countries to seek the highest returns in global financial

markets and, hence, imply a correlation among national saving and

investment closer to zero than one. Moreover, capital mobility has

strongly increased since the publication of Feldstein - Horioka's

seminal paper while the association between saving and investment

does not seem to comparably decrease. Through general equilibrium

mechanisms, the presence of global shocks might rationalize the

correlation between saving and investment. In fact, global shocks,

affecting all countries, tend to create imbalance on global

capital markets causing offsetting movements in the global

interest rate and can generate the observed correlation across

national saving and investment rates. However, previous empirical

studies (see Ventura, 2003) that have controlled for the effects

of global shocks in the context of saving-investment regressions

failed to give empirical foundation to this explanation. We show

that previous studies have neglected the fact that global shocks

may propagate heterogeneously across countries, failing to

properly isolate components of saving and investment that are

affected by non pervasive shocks. We propose a novel factor

augmented panel regression methodology that allows to isolate

idiosyncratic sources of fluctuations under the assumption of

heterogenous transmission mechanisms of global shocks. Remarkably,

by applying our methodology, the association between domestic

saving and investment decreases considerably over time,

consistently with the observed increase in international capital

mobility. In particular, in the last 25 years the correlation

between saving and investment disappears.

Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The aim of the thesis is to further explore the relationship between economic integration and firm mobility and investment, both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective, with the objective of drawing conclusions on how government policy can be used to strengthen the positive impact of integration on investment, which is crucial in moving and maintaining countries at the forefront of the technology frontier and accelerating economic growth in a world of rapid technical change and high mobility of ideas, goods, services, capital and labor.

The first chapter aims to bring together the literature on economic integration, firm mobility and investment. It contains two sections: one dedicated to the literature on FDI and the second covering the literature on firm entry and exit, economic performance and economic and business regulation.

In the second chapter I examine the relationship between the Single Market and FDI both in an intra-EU context and from outside the EU. The empirical results show that the impact of the Single Market on FDI differs substantially from one country to another. This finding may be due to the functioning of institutions.

The third chapter studies the relationship between the level of external trade protection put into place by a Regional Integration Agreement(RIA)and the option of a firm from outside the RIA block to serve the RIA market through FDI rather than exports. I find that the level of external trade protection put in place by the RIA depends on the RIA country's capacity to benefit from FDI spillovers, the magnitude of set-up costs of building a plant in the RIA and on the amount of external trade protection erected by the country from outside the reigonal block with respect to the RIA.

The fourth chapter studies how the firm entry and exit process is affected by product market reforms and regulations and impact macroeconomic performance. The results show that an increase in deregulation will lead to a rise in firm entry and exit. This in turn will especially affect macroeconomic performance as measured by output growth and labor productivity growth. The analysis done at the sector level shows that results can differ substantially across industries, which implies that deregulation policies should be conducted at the sector level, rather than at the global macroeconomic level.
Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The aim of this paper is to test empirically the relationship between life satisfaction, another term used for happiness, and macroeconomic indicators such as GDP per capita, which is a proxy for economic growth, unemployment, inflation, income distribution and government expenditure in the European Union countries during the period of 2005-2017. The chosen variables are some of the most significant determinants of economic growth as well. Using the Fixed Effects model, which falls under the Panel Generalized Least Square method, the empirical results are in accordance with the literature review and suggest that unemployment and inflation have negative significant impacts on life satisfaction. Additionally, higher government expenditures and a higher level of economic growth lead to a higher level of life satisfaction in the EU countries, while unfair income distribution leads to a lower level of life satisfaction. Keywords: life satisfaction, macroeconomic indicators, economic growth, EU

Our paper aims to investigate how the changes in macroeconomic conditions and the quality of insti-tutions affect the level of entrepreneurial activity in 18 European Union countries, over the period 2002–2016. Using panel-data estimation techniques, we alternatively analyzed the effects of some macroeconomic and institutional framework related factors (in particular, the quality of institutions) on entrepreneurial activity level, proxied by the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate, nascent entrepreneurship rate, and new business ownership rate. The results of our empirical analysis show that the economic situation of EU countries and the quality of institutions (reflected in our study through competitiveness, economic freedom, and governance quality) have a significant effect on early-stage entrepreneurs and for some variables the sign of the relationship depends on the age of the business. Our findings may be of interest to policy makers in developing effective policies contributing to enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity in different countries.

The aim of this paper is to compare fiscal reforms of some of the transition economies in Balkans including The Republic of Macedonia. Since 1990’s former planned economies, which are in the process of economic transformation into market economy have carried out several reforms. During this economic transformation process both the effects and the results of these reforms vary according to the difference between the needs of structural change in each country. In this study, some of the selected transition economies in Balkans are analyzed: Some of the recent members of European Community in Balkans and The Republic of Macedonia are examined in comparison. Analysis of fiscal reforms of these transition economies are evaluated in several headings in reference to the macroeconomic statistics created by international organizations such as OECD, EC and IMF and policy suggestions are proposed accordingly. The government deficit, government debts and tax policy are the significant part of these reforms. Several strategies are implemented in developing support systems for competitive environment and private ownership. Economic shrinkage, current account deficit, low foreign capital and government deficit indicate economic weakness in these countries. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, The Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Hungary face fiscal problems such as economic shrinkage, debt service and government deficit during the transition process. As being the candidate country for European Union accession; The Republic of Macedonia is approaching to the Maastricht Criteria and has better outcomes in public debt compared to the other countries given above.

Training of human resources through e-Learning platforms according to studies conducted by the Institute for Quality of Life training of human resources in all sectors through e-learning platforms is not yet sufficiently developed in Romania compared to other European countries. Statistics show that if the European Union participation in continuing education for people in the age group 25-49 years is 11%, in Romania the percentage is below 2%. The same gap is seen for 25-64 years, less than 2%, compared to 6% in Romania in the EU. At present, we can say that training based on e-learning platforms is rather a secondary option for both training providers and employers. The main obstacles are the lack of direct contact between student and trainer or the trainee and the development of technology, and that this system is not always suitable for use in courses that focus on direct communication and interaction trainer - learner. Developing lifelong learning through the use of e-learning platform creates potential to enhance the adaptability and proficiency in the activity of the human resource in any field. Also, training in virtual environment enables the development and promotion of effective managerial models at an economic and even macroeconomic and provide increased capacity for understanding and operating the new technologies of human resources. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the situation of continuous training of human resources, and a series of best practices in developed countries in the European area, which could be successfully implemented in the development of human capital to ensure increased quality of life.

Adam Smith is known as the founder of economics as a social science and also of economic liberalism (or termed as capitalism after Karl Marx) based on principles of non-intervention and non-protection by the governments to perfectly competitive markets. Over time, economic theory and resulting economic regime evolved: Interventions to improve the welfare of workers; infant-industry argument for limited trade protection; and most importantly, following the 1929 Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes and his macroeconomic system giving rise to less-than-full- employment equilibrium, hence the need for macro-economic level state interventions by means of monetary and fiscal policies. Evidently, liberal economic regime was modified but remained in essence; hence, it proved to be flexible and resilient. On the other hand, Marxist socialism, the doctrinaire challenge to capitalism, had virtually collapsed in the 1990's. The move of even the developing countries towards outward orientation and market economy at the national level is in line with Adam Smith's views; so is the establishment of the European Union and the like at the regional level, as well as the more recent move towards globalisation.

The establishment and enlargement of the European Union have been partly motivated by catching up on higher living standards of living. This study examines whether developmental convergence can be demonstrated among the NUTS 2 regions of the Union. The existence of convergence among the EU is generally approached from an economic perspective by using macroeconomic indicators. Although these metrics are suitable for comparing the performance of Member States, they are less reflective of each country's social well-being. Several analyses, usually based on mortality indicators, have been conducted in an attempt to characterize convergence from a social point of view. However, these calculations are usually limited to country-level convergence analyses with diseases and causes of death in their focus. Thus, this study applies a complex measure, the Human Development Index (HDI), to examine convergence at a regional level. For this purpose, the regional HDI is calculated and the existence of absolute and conditional beta convergence is assessed. Our calculations confirm convergence among EU regions over the period between 2006 and 2017, but the analysis also reveals divergent trends and various national characteristics that will call into question the long-term sustainability of equalization.

This article provides estimates of the effective tax rates in Ireland for the 1995-2017 period. We use these aggregate tax indicators to compare the developments in the Irish tax policy mix with the rest of the European Union countries and investigate any potential relation with Ireland’s macroeconomic performance. Our findings show that distortionary taxes, e.g. on factors of production, are significantly lower while less distortionary taxes, e.g. on consumption, are higher in Ireland than most European countries. Thus, the distribution of tax burden falls relatively more on consumption and to a lesser extent on labour than capital; while in the EU average the norm is the opposite. The descriptive analysis indicates that this shift in the Irish tax policy mix is correlated with the country’s strong economic performance.

This working paper examines the puzzle of the gaps between the images that the EU projects, voluntarily and involuntarily, and the perceptions of the EU in Latin America. After reviewing some of the debates related to the role of perceptions in public policy and EU Public Diplomacy (EUPD), the paper analyzes some critical developments in global perceptions of the EU based on the study Update of the 2015 Analysis of the Perception of the EU and EU Policies Abroad (2021 Update Study), which assessed the attitudes of the EU in 13 countries. The third section examines some studies on the attitudes of the EU in Latin America, including some contributions from Latinobarometer. The fourth section offers comparative cases of EU perception in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia based on the findings of the 2021 Update Study. The analysis of each country relies on the interpretation of surveys with some references to the press analysis and interview methods provided in the 2021 Update Study. Each case discusses specific trends in the following areas: visibility, primary descriptors, global economics, and international leadership. Also, it identifies some patterns in perceptions of the EU in social development, climate change, research/technology, development assistance, culture, the case of the critical juncture in the survey (pandemic), and the EU as a normative setter. The final section offers some general trends in the perceptions of the EU in Latin America.

The Ukraine war has added to the pressure to address the links between the environment, natural resource management and conflict. This SIPRI Research Policy Paper assesses the priorities of selected European Union (EU) member states regarding climate-related security risks, explores their strategies for pursuing these at EU level and identifies steps for further action. It finds that the appetite to tackle climate-related security risks at EU level is mixed. While maintaining the operational efficiency of the military is a red line, concentrating efforts on research, development and peacekeeping is acceptable even to countries that do not prioritize climate insecurity in their policies. Country strategies for pursuing such efforts involve spotlighting climate security during their respective rotating Council presidencies, working closely with the European External Action Service and the European Commission, and collaborating with like-minded member states. The paper recommends additional steps for action but in order to make effective adjustments to EU processes, climate security will need greater prominence on the EU agenda.

This SIPRI Research Policy Paper identifies European Union (EU) member states’ efforts to address climate-related security risks in the short to medium term and suggests entry points for further action. Even countries making visible attempts to mainstream the linkages between climate and security are falling short of pursuing a comprehensive approach. Among the ongoing initiatives that might bear fruit in one to three years are: appointing climate security advisers; climate proofing peacebuilding and conflict proofing climate action; investing in early warning and risk mapping; reassessing climate financing and development aid; and building up the operational resilience of the military. Strengthening such efforts would involve: incorporating climate insecurity into foreign and security policy dialogues; increasing conflict-sensitive climate adaptation finance; sensitization to climate change and conflict; and improving the operationalization of early warning. To remain credible, EU member states must advance their climate security initiatives and close the gap between rhetoric and practice.