Retired EU migrants,healthcare rights and European social citizenship

Drawing on a set of 210 qualitative interviews conducted in six European countries, this paper investigates the citizenship status and experiences of retired EU migrants at both national and European levels. The paper focuses upon the experiences of two types of respondents: 'Retired Migrants' (retired nationals of one EU country who moved on retirement and reside in another EU host state) and 'Returnees', that is, those migrants who have chosen to return to their country of origin after a period of residence abroad. In particular, this paper will attempt to explore three issues: (a) The extent to which retired migrants have access to, and make use of, the public healthcare systems of the countries in which they reside. (b) Retired migrants' perceptions and experiences of those systems. (c)Whether or not a lack of access to and/or the quality of public healthcare is an important determinant of return migration decisions, i.e. moves back to the country of origin. By focusing on healthcare the paper combines an analysis of the formal welfare rights available to EU citizens who migrate on retirement (both in terms of their EU rights and their status in the receiving and exporting countries) with qualitative evidence that documents the substantive reality of such rights.     

Sectoral Opposition to Carbon Taxes in the EU – a Myopic Economic Approach

Over 10 years ago the EU Commission proposed a directive on carbon taxes, but faced so much domestic resistance that agreement was not reached until last year – and after it had been considerably watered down. The aim of this paper is to look into economic reasons for the political infeasibility of extensive carbon taxes. Since opposition is believed to arise prior to the policy implementation, the cost estimates have a myopic character compared with market estimates, in the sense that sectors are presumed to take into account their own substitution opportunities, but disregard changes in other sectors as well as the macroeconomic welfare gains from a tax regime. With this myopic approach, we estimate and compare costs of emissions cuts across sectors and across countries in the EU, showing how different sectors might have anticipated the impacts from an expected carbon tax. This focus illustrates that what seems to be cost-effective and to the best for the region on paper turned out too controversial to be politically feasible.     

我国公共部门绩效审计的屏障分析

公共部门绩效审计是衡量一国政府审计是否走向现代化的标志之一,它有助于公共部门合理配置和使用资源、强化公共部门的经济责任,建立廉洁高效的政府机制。在西方,作为政府审计重点的绩效审计已成为重塑政府,改进公共部门管理绩效的有力工具。在我国,公共部门绩效审计则刚刚起步,本文系统剖析了我国公共部门开展绩效审计的制约屏障。     

The impact of participation in European joint research projects on knowledge creation and economic growth

This paper investigates the impact of participation in European scientific networks on the stock of knowledge and on economic growth. We use scientific links in FP programmes to weight foreign R&D in order to construct two different measures of foreign R&D spillovers and we assess their impact on the production of knowledge (patents) and on economic growth in a panel of countries participating in FP over the period 1994–2005. We find that participation in EU funded projects is an important channel of knowledge transfer. However, while for countries with high levels of R&D expenditure R&D spillovers contribute to the generation of new knowledge, for low R&D spenders knowledge spillovers facilitate technological imitation and catching up.     

The Second CSF (Delors' II Package) for Greece and its Impact on the Greek Economy

The Greek Community Support Framework (CSF), which is operational during the period 1994-99, is designed to finance large-scale development projects and investment in physical and human capital in Greece, aiming to gear the economy onto a sustainable path of economic growth and development. This process of real convergence is viewed as a prerequisite for the cohesion of EU and the sustainability of the nominal convergence objective of the Maastricht Treaty in the way to Economic and Monetary Union of Europe. The paper provides, first, an overview of the Greek CSF and, second, an ex ante assessment of the effects that the Second CSF is likely to have on the economy of Greece. The analysis delineates four types of CSF actions according to whether they aim at (i) raising 'hard' infrastructure, (ii) financing 'soft' infrastructure interventions (such as R&D, health services, etc), (iii) supporting productive investment, and, (iv) training the labour force into new skills and improving the civil service. The effects are analysed first assuming that CSF operates only through raising the components of income and aggregate demand, and then by incorporating externalities on the productivity of output in various sectors and the reduction in costs. We find that in the absence of externalities, output rises during the period of the CSF 1994-99 but then returns to the benchmark course without any lasting improvement. When all types of externalities are taken into account, total output in year 2010 will be higher than baseline by an impressive 9.5%, and will continue to grow at a rate faster by 0.26% per annum than would be otherwise, while employment expands by an average of 95.000 new jobs.     

A model of unbalanced sectorial growth with application to transition economies

This paper studies the implications of a dynamic general equilibrium model with three production sectors, which are agriculture, industry and services. Due to the assumption of increasing returns, our model has multiple equilibria. There are two stable equilibria: one, in which a country produces only agricultural goods and converges to a steady state, and the other, in which a country operates all three sectors and has positive unbalanced long-run growth with contracting agriculture and expanding industry and services. These predictions agree well with the real-world development experiences of rich and poor countries. In the context of our model, we also investigate the evolution of the sectorial composition in the transition countries and find that such countries move to the rich rather than to the poor world.

论反倾销法公共利益原则的确立

随着经济全球化的发展,将公共利益纳入反倾销制度已成为现代反倾销立法的一个重要发展趋向,这也是现代经济立法的共同特点。虽然WTO的《反倾销协议》已作出一些相关的规定,但在各国的反倾销立法和司法实践中,对公共利益原则的具体内涵尚有待明确,尤其是在我国,如何确立和贯彻公共利益原则仍是完善反倾销制度的一项重要课题。笔者分析了公共利益原则确立的理论基础,介绍并评论欧盟及有关国家的实践做法,最后就我国反倾销法中如何确立公共利益原则进行探讨。     

Exchange Rate Adjustment in Partially Liberalized Economy

This paper develops a model of exchange rate determination in partially liberalized post-socialist economy that operates under soft budget constraints in nontradable sectors. The model captures the factors that determine the evolution of a country's external balance during the initial phase of economic liberalization. Three types of disturbances are the center of analysis: liberalization of trade and foreign exchange regime, devaluation, and price liberalization. We show that the real exchange rate appreciation may either improve or worsen the trade balance depending on the sources of this appreciation. Thus, we argue that the real exchange rate cannot reflect true country's competitiveness unless all sectors are equally exposed to hard budget constraints. The model implications are further analyzed through the empirical evidence on the relationship between the real exchange rate and trade balance in three selected East European countries.     

The advanced technology program, its evaluation plan, and progress in implementation

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) partners with U.S. businesses in high-risk research to develop enabling technologies with strong potential for economic benefits to the nation. Universities, nonprofit research laboratories, and firms of all sizes participate in ATP-funded projects. ATP’s evaluation effort seeks not only to measure the impacts of the technology development projects it funds, but also to understand the underlying relationships among research, technological change, and economic impact, and to provide feedback to the program to increase its broad-based benefits. Evaluation activities encompass developing models, conducting surveys, compiling databases, conducting micro- and macro-economic case studies, and performing statistical and econometric analyses. Program metrics include private rates of return, social rates of return, and public rates of return—the social-rate-of-return component attributable to the ATP. Topics of special interest, in addition to performance metrics, include spillover pathways, benefits and costs of collaboration, financing issues, and new models of impact assessment.     

Unilateral CDM—can developing countries finance generation of greenhouse gas emission credits on their own?

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was originally seen as an instrument with a bi- or multilateral character where an entity or fund from an industrialised country invests in a project in a developing country. The sluggish implementation of incentives for industrialised country companies to embark on CDM projects and low carbon prices led to a preference for just buying Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) instead of investing in projects. Thus a third option has gained prominence—the unilateral option where the project development is planned and financed within the developing country. We propose that a project should be called “pure unilateral” if it involves no foreign direct investment (FDI), only has the approval of the Designated National Authority (DNA) of the host country and sells its CERs after certification directly to an industrialised country. Unilateral projects can become attractive if the host country risk premium for foreign investors is high despite a high human, institutional and infrastructural capacity and domestic capital availability. Moreover, transaction costs can be reduced compared to foreign investments that have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. On the other hand, technology transfer is likely to be lower, capacity building has to be undertaken by the host country and all risks have to be carried by host country entities. The potential to carry out unilateral CDM projects strongly varies among host countries. Whereas several countries from Asia and Latin America can design and implement projects autonomously, most of the Sub-Saharan countries rely on foreign support. International donors of capacity building grants should increasingly address those countries that are not presently focused on by foreign investors and support them in the design of local projects.

气候变化法律应对实证分析——从国际公约到国内法的转化

气候变化问题的全球性决定了构建应对气候变化对策必须集合各领域的通力合作的,法律应对机制是必不可少。以往,我们常常将关注点放在气候变化国际法律制度领域的基本问题研究上,而未真正对气候变化国际法律制度进行认真剖析,找出其目前和未来发展阶段的不足之处;更没有在国际实证分析的基础上,结合我国目前的实际情况,做出完整的法律构架,实现国际法的国内法转化,使气候变化的应对能真正落到实处,毕竟《京都议定书》的实现需要各国知之践行;尽管有必要强调共同但区别原则,但是中国作为负责任的大国,有必要提升“道义责任理念”,从自身内部法律实践做起,为温室气体的减排落实真正尽一份力。     

International Migration and the European Union, Trends and Consequences

Member States of the European Union (EU) have undoubtedly changed into de facto countries of immigration. Since the upswing in migration in the late 1980s, net migration for the 15 EU Member States together has not been below 500,000. This article first focuses on trends in international migration (such as migration from former colonies, recruitment of temporary workers, and East-West migration) and special groups of immigrants (such as ethnic Germans, asylum seekers, and clandestine migrants). The second part of the article pays attention to immigrant settlement and migration policies, especially focusing on the European Union (trafficking and smuggling of humans, and the integration of migrants on the labour market). Detailed comparison of international migration flows is seriously hindered by a complexity of different national registration systems, and different countries display differences with regard to type and history of migration, country of origin, size of migration flows and immigrant populations.     

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority: Issues of De Jure and De Facto Independence

As independent regulatory agencies have been instituted to regulate disparate economic sectors in countries around the world, some research has focused on their independence vis-à-vis the governments in the countries, respectively, and vis-à-vis the various operators in the sectors they regulate in the countries. This article considers the formal and informal independence of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority from the government of Malawi, specifically focusing on the executive branch of government. It shows that the respective provisions in the Communications Act, 1998, that authorize the president to appoint members to serve on the Authority and authorize the roles that members of the executive branch of government have to play in the internal organization, administration, financial affairs, and regulatory activities of the Authority, cumulatively, undermine both the formal and informal independence of the authority. Further, the article contends that even the recent attempts to amend the law so as to enhance the independence of the Authority fall short. Moreover, the analysis herein has wider implications because this lack of independence is not unique to the Authority in Malawi but affects the respective communications regulators instituted by other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Ultimately, the article offers possible ways to enhance the independence of the Authority and, by extension, these other regulators.     

The role of firm and national level factors in fostering R&D cooperation: a cross country comparison

This paper explores the factors that affect firms’ propensity to engage in R&D cooperation using a CIS-3 sample of innovative firms located in seven European countries. It performs the analysis separately for the manufacturing and the service sectors in order to examine whether there are specific features that shape the service firms’ R&D cooperative behaviour in particular ways. Differences between the manufacturing and the service sectors in the cooperative behaviour of firms become much more evident once an appropriate structure of endogeneity is determined. We compare different countries because, so far, the empirical evidence produced comes from single countries or countries that are all quite homogeneous in terms of industrial structure. Instead, we consider also countries, such as transition economies, that have not been analyzed so far. We find that public subsidies positively affect firms’ propensity to engage in R&D cooperation in all countries, but they seem particularly important to enhance firms’ cooperativeness in the service sector. Implications for innovation policy are examined.     

Return on Investment in Innovation: Implications for Institutions and National Agencies*

Commercial success in universities in the USA and Canada has resulted in many other countries taking steps to emulate this performance and major technology transfer and commercialisation support programmes have been launched in UK, Europe, Australia, Japan and many other countries—including South Africa. Unrealistic expectations have, however, been generated by the spectacular successes of a relatively few institutions and it is not always realised that the success from commercialisation is proportional to the magnitude of the investment in research. Without a well funded, high quality research system, it is not possible for technology transfer to make any significant contribution to economic development. The possible economic returns to higher education institutions from commercialisation of research can be estimated using international benchmarks. This forecast uses a combination of an institutional return on investment model and a simple economic projection. The model is generic and can be adapted for use in any institution. As more data becomes available from local (and international) sources, the model will be refined to give better estimates. The model is dynamic and shows, quantitatively, why it can take up to 10 years for an institution, and 20 years nationally, to attain a positive rate of return from an investment in research and technology transfer. The model enables the long-term impact of policy decisions, in an institution and nationally, to be examined and alternative scenarios explored. The performance of individual institutions is, however, highly variable and unpredictable. This is even for those institutions that are comparable in size and maturity. A large portfolio of patents and licences is required to give a reasonable probability of positive returns. This may be possible at a national level, but is problematic in smaller institutions—and smaller countries. Because the benefits of the innovation system are captured largely at national level, with institutions having a high uncertainty, public sector support to reduce the institutional risk is necessary to assist institutions to make the necessary investments. Technology transfer is of course only one element of the overall research and innovation value chain. All elements must be functioning effectively to derive the economic and social benefits from research. In addition to a strong research system, adequate incentives must exist to encourage academics to participate, particularly with regard to the crucial initial step of invention disclosure. After disclosure, sufficient institutional capacity must be in place to take an idea, evaluate it, protect the intellectual property appropriately and then seek a path to commercialisation through either licensing or start-up company formation. *Based on the paper “Return on Investment in Innovation: Implications for Institutions and National Agencies” presented at The First Globelics Conference on Innovation Systems and Development Strategies for the Third Millennium, Rio de Janeiro, November 2003.     

从欧盟扩大看GATT/WTO关于关税同盟补偿谈判的规定与实践

2004年5月,欧盟正式扩大到25国,其共同贸易政策自动延伸适用到新入盟国,导致部分关税税率升高和贸易政策趋严,给盟外其他WTO成员造成经贸利益减损。WTO其他成员有权根据GATT第24条、第28条以及关于解释这两条的谅解等规定,要求欧盟做出补偿性调整。本文对关税同盟补偿谈判的法律基础、主要内容、谈判程序和主体等进行了分析和探讨。作者认为,关税同盟补偿问题的妥善解决,将对区域经济一体化趋势下更好地维护多边贸易框架的合理性做出贡献。     

A framework for the analysis of corruption

The article sets out a framework within which the problem of corruption may be analysed in any specific country. It does not seek to establish the importance of such activity in a general sense, or seek to propose particular economic policy or institutional programmes that should be pursued in order to reduce the impact on the development process. Rather, the objective is to provide a structure for two distinct areas of analysis. Firstly, it considers the investigation of the determinants of corruption, emphasising the environment in which corruption evolves — whether shaped by international, national or specific institutional factors — and the manner in which the different parties to corruption interact and organise themselves in conducting these activities. Secondly, the article focusses on the importance of corruption for economic development by considering the different forms of corruption and the characteristics of these forms that are most critical for economic activity. Here, the distortions that are introduced into on-going economic activity are identified, together with the manner in which these distortions redirect activity in sub-optimal directions. In addition, the nature of the uncertainty attaching to these differing forms of corruption is considered, and especially the degree to which a form may be considered anarchic or structured in character: the former reflecting a system of intense uncertainty, and the latter one of less uncertainty — perhaps, only minimal uncertainty — as a predictable and stable set of relationships between parties is established. Finally, the article reviews the empirical work that has been undertaken in this field. This article, therefore, seeks to identify how detailed case study analysis, focussed on individual countries — and, indeed, on specific institutions or sectors within those countries — could valuably complement these existing studies, and provide a framework for those seeking to design policy that is appropriate to any individual circumstance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

European Union economic growth and the age structure of the population

We test the robustness of correlations between age structure and economic growth in EU15 countries by replicating a previous OECD study. A hump-shaped relation with the age structure is confirmed where increases in the dependent age group shares are associated with decreasing GDP growth rates. In addition we confirm that the peak of the hump is in the upper part of the working age population. Models estimated on data up to 1990 agree quite well when data for 15 more years are added. Sensitivity tests, instrumented regressions and addition of control variables do not change this conclusion. Thus, the age profile of correlations between age and economic growth is robust over time. This motivates a prospective analysis of future effects ageing will have on EU growth. The basic conclusion from this exercise is that ageing will be accompanied by stagnation in GDP growth, but at rather different time horizons.

Sectoral change and labour productivity growth during boom,bust and recovery in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper assesses the extent of structural or sectoral change and its importance for aggregate productivity growth during times of boom, bust and recovery. The analysis covers 10 EU countries from Central and Eastern Europe over the years 2001–2012. The reallocation of labour across sectors was substantial during the boom, very extensive in 2009 at the depth of the crisis and modest in the subsequent recovery period. The contribution of sectoral change to aggregate productivity growth is computed using various decomposition methods. Changes in labour productivity within sectors play the dominant role for aggregate productivity growth, while reallocation of labour between sectors is less important. This pattern is found through most of the sample period despite large differences in the extent of sectoral change during the boom, crisis and recovery.     

From worker to self‐entrepreneur: The transformation of homo economicus and the freedom of movement in the European Union

This paper seeks to make a contribution to the study of personhood in EU free movement law by linking a historical and doctrinal analysis with the internal transformation of the homo economicus in economic liberalism. It is argued that a shift can be observed in the government of mobility from “freeing up” the ability of the worker as a relatively passive subject tied to external economic mechanisms to the targeting of the individual him/herself as a responsible, active bearer of economic capability or “human capital”, whereby past socio‐economic conduct and prospective economic activity serve as the thresholds for the entitlement to rights. The essence of the “new” homo economicus of EU free movement law is situated at the intersection of the social and economic, serving as a rational frame for the government of the European mover on the basis of a mutual responsibility between the Union citizen and his/her host Member State towards social and economic activity, self‐sufficiency and integration.