Measuring the Balance of Intra-Regional Trade

We introduce an original method of measuring the extent of the overall balance of migration among countries within a region which allows comparisons of the balance over time as well as between regions and various possible sub-regions

Convergence, Patenting Activity and Geographic Spillovers: A Spatial Econometric Analysis for European Regions

In this paper, we investigate the impact of geographical spillovers in the patenting activity and convergence process for a sample of 131 European regions over the 1981-2001 period. Using spatial econometrics methods (Anselin, 1988, 2001), we detect spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity in the regional distribution of patent applications to the European Patent Office. Then, we include successively these spatial effects in a convergence analysis. A first specifcation taking into account the spatial dependence reveals a global convergence process between European regions as also a positive effect of geographical spillovers on this convergence process. Secondly, the spatial heterogeneity is taking into account by a specification with two spatial regimes, a "Core-Periphery" type. Finally, ours results show that the global convergence process is hiding disparities and different convergence processes for the two regimes. Only regions that belong to the "Core" of the EU are converging.

Regional growth and finance in Europe: Is there a quality effect of bank efficiency?

In this study, we test whether regional growth in 11 European countries depends on financial development and suggest the use of cost- and profit-efficiency estimates as quality measures for financial institutions. Contrary to the usual quantitative proxies for financial development, the quality of financial institutions is measured in this study as the relative ability of banks to intermediate funds. An improvement in bank efficiency spurs five times more regional growth than does an identical increase in credit. More credit provided by efficient banks exerts an independent growth effect in addition to the direct quantity and quality channel effects.bank performance; regional growth; bank efficiency; Europe

From Gibraltar through Levant and from Maghreb through the Southern Latin European Countries or about culture and management in the Mediterranean Sea Region

Bordering the southern coast of Europe, the eastern part of the Middle East and northern Africa, representing the most appropriate environment for the development of cultural, social and economic of the maritime regions, influencing decisively the culture and the entire life of the inhabitants in a lot of bordering countries, ensuring the achievement of a natural maritime transportation way between eastern Levantine character and western pragmatism of our ancient continent, or between Maghreb, and the Latin world, especially in southern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea has an another treasure, yet poorly known and only partially recovered, with a history of over six thousands of years, with people proud of their history, culture, customs and traditions with unique cities, impressive by the mixture of cultures and races, its islandsMediterranean Sea region, history, culture, islands, tourism, management

Industry, Foreign Trade and Development: Econometric Models of Europe and North America, 1965-2003

We compare several econometric models of Western Europe, Central Europe, the United States, Canada and Mexico in order to analyze the impact of foreign trade and industry on development Regarding the positive effects of foreign trade it is important to notice that they are more due to the positive role of imports from the supply side than to the effect of exports from the demand side, although both sides are relevant. The main benefit from increasing exports is usually to increase the capacity to import intermediate inputs and other goods and services which are necessary or help to foster economic development in the domestic market. There are many studies which show the positive effects of exports but very few focused on the role of imports, and this study contributes in this regard.. On the other hand the analysis of industrial contribution to the non industrial sectors is twofold: directly providing intermediate and capital goods to non industrial sectors and indirectly increasing exports and the capacity to import foreign inputs which contribute to domestic production.Industry, Foreign Trade, Development, Europe, America

Understanding price developments and consumer price indices in south-eastern Europe

The primary goal of monetary policy in most economies of the world is to achieve and maintain price stability. This paper evaluates price developments and consumer price indices in south-eastern European countries, i.e. countries that have either recently joined the EU or are candidate or potential candidate countries. It is motivated by the fact that, in transition countries, inflation has generally been higher and more volatile than in advanced economies. The analysis reveals that the subindex housing/energy appears to be the main driving force behind overall inflation in the region. In most of the countries under review, administered prices prove to be an important factor in consumer price developments, with their weights increasing over time. Inflation volatility in south-eastern Europe is significantly higher than in the euro area. While this is partly due to a higher level of inflation, it also reflects a more pronounced share for the most volatile sub-indices as well as the marked impact of administered prices on the overall price index, a phenomenon which has also been seen in the central and eastern European countries. While in most south-eastern European countries no HICP has been calculated yet, there is little evidence suggesting that the future use of the HICP will result in a systematic change in inflation patterns in the respective countries. However, as deviations have been observed in a few countries for certain periods, without further information on the structure of the respective national CPI and the HICP such differences cannot be fully excluded. JEL Classification: E21, O52, O57, P22.South-eastern Europe, inflation developments, inflation volatility, consumer price indices, HICP, administered prices.

The Bitter Taste of Strawberry Jam: Distortions on Romanian Labour Market beyond 2007

The paper is a contribution at the scientific debate of migration and mobility issues in the context of an enlarged European Union (EU-27). We consider that Romania, a country with a labour market that faces distortions, will benefit from migration on short term, but will need to import labour force in order to maintain the development trend. Remittances, as result of Romanians emigration after 2002, helped the economic development of the country in the last years (remittances’ inflow doubled the FDI). As a response to the media debate regarding Romania’s emigration, we consider that the fear of mass migration from Romania following the year 2007 is not justified. While the European (and mostly British) media cries on the threat of Bulgarians and Romanians’ emigration, as following to the 2007 accession, the scientific reports say that the A8 countries’ migration benefits to economy of the EU15 countries. In the same time, the Romanian media and the Romanian entrepreneurs announce the ‘Chinese invasion’ and the lack of labour in construction, industry and even agriculture. We see labour as goods: the economic theory say that goods are moving with the prices, the highest price attracts (more) goods. Romania is not only a gateway for the East-West international migration (like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece for the South-North direction), but a labour market in need of workers. While a big part of the labour force is already migrated, mostly to the SE Europe (some 2.5m workers are cited to be abroad, with both legal and illegal/irregular status), the Romanian companies could not find local workers to use them in order to benefit from the money inflow targeting Romania in the light of its new membership to the European Union (foreign investments and European post accession funds). Instead of increasing the salaries, the local employers rather prefer to ‘import’ workers from poorer countries (Chinese, Moldavians, Ukrainians, who still accept a lower wage as compared to the medium wage in Romania, but bigger enough as compared to those from their country of origin). The paper concludes with the case of the Banat region, considered the ‘Western Europe’ from Romania, as a small scale model for the labour market relations within the whole EU.labour migration, labour market distortions, South-Eastern Europe Syndrome, network effect, decision making, motivation, need for esteem, Banat region

Economic Development of American and European Areas in 1951-99

We present a comparison, at area level, of production by sector in America, Western Europe, Central Europe, East Mediterranean and East Europe, including also Russia and former Ussr countries, and we analyse the main differences among these areas in economic development during the 20th century.

Why is Europe lagging behind?

This paper builds on the literature on growth in searching for explanations for the divergent growth performance between the EU countries and the United States. We emphasise the role of R&D investment and perhaps different degrees of elasticity of substitution between capital and labour. We estimate two different production functions, namely Cobb-Douglas and CES specifications, with physical capital, a measure of labour, and residual ‘technical trend’ as inputs. Our first finding is that in many ICT-producing and using countries such as Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the United States technical progress has been accelerating during the past decade. Secondly, this speeding up of technical progress has been associated with R&D investment and perhaps with increasing elasticity of substitution between capital and labour. Hence, our results suggest that there is no growth paradox in Europe: the R&D factor and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour which have been known to be important factors of economies’ growth potential, actually explain a significant part of the divergent growth performance of the European economies as well.endogenous growth; panel data estimation; production function; R&D; technical progress; elasticity of substitution

THE ROLE OF CLUSTERS IN THE REGIONAL CRISIS PROGRAMS. REGIONS OF ROMANIA AND UKRAINE

The basis of a regional anti-crisis policy is to create a system of crisis prevention and mild leakage, to ensure a stable, free of sharp ups and downs, development of regional industries. Under the impact of the crisis (as in the pre-crisis period, under the influence of competition) and to ensure profitability, companies are forced to seek lines of cost optimization, one of which is the creation of new clusters and the restructuring of the existing clusters.economics cluster structure, regional anticrisis programs, economic development.