Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) - RMIS Newsletter n.3 (September 2020)

This newsletter is a bi-annual summary of the main developments related to the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS). It provides key highlights on raw materials knowledge support to policy.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU country profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Greece: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Greece, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Greece included in the RMIS in July-August 2019, which is the reference period of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU country profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Hungary: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Hungary, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Hungary included in the RMIS in March 2020, which is the reference month of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU Country profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Denmark: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Denmark, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Denmark included in the RMIS in May 2019, which is the reference month of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU Country Profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Belgium: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Belgium, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Belgium included in the RMIS in May 2019, which is the reference month of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU Country profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Czechia: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Czechia, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Czechia included in the RMIS in May 2019, which is the reference month of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

EU Country profiles in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): Austria: Country-level key data and information related to non-food, non-energy raw materials

The module European Country Profiles of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) provides country-specific data and indicators related to non-food, non-energy raw materials. These data and indicators are derived from data from official sources and well-established data providers, or by their elaboration. Each profile is structured into nine thematic sections: i) Key indicators; ii) Investment and regulatory framework; iii) research, development and innovation; iv) Resources and reserves; v) Supply; vi) Raw materials use; vii) Trade; viii) Environment; and ix) Social & Policy. The current country report presents the data and indicators for Austria, mirroring the EU Country Profile for Austria included in the RMIS in May 2019, which is the reference month of the data used.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Raw Materials Information System (RMIS): 2019 Roadmap & Progress Report - Context, content & foreseen priorities

The European Commission's (EC) Raw Materials Initiative (RMI) emphasises that raw materials are essential for the sound and sustainable functioning of Europe’s industries and, in a broader context, of Europe’s economy and society. The EC is committed to promote the competitiveness of industries related to raw materials. These industries play an important role in many downstream sectors in the European Union (EU) such as construction, chemicals, automotive, aerospace, machinery, pharmacy, equipment, renewable energy devices, and defence. These sectors have a combined added-value of around EUR 1,000 billion and provide employment for some 30 million people. Securing an undistorted supply of raw materials and, in particular, Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) is thus crucial and requires a sound and continuously developed knowledge base, namely the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB), as highlighted in the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials. In this context, and responding to a specific action of the 2015 Circular Economy Communication, the JRC is further advancing the EC's Raw Materials Information System (RMIS), which was first released in March 2015. The markedly upgraded second version (hereinafter “RMIS 2.0”, or simply “RMIS”) was announced in the 2017 JRC “RMIS Roadmap & Progress Report” and officially launched during the 2017 “Raw Materials Week”, organised by DG GROW in Brussels. RMIS 2.0 broadened goal and scope of the first version, significantly expanded the network of its knowledge providers, and responded – often in quantitative terms – to the latest policy and knowledge needs on raw materials. In particular, important thematic sections such as “raw materials’ profiles”, “country profiles”, “supply chain viewer” and “raw materials knowledge gateway” were included. Since its conception and first release in 2015, RMIS has been developed in close cooperation with DG GROW. DG GROW helps the JRC to recognise policy and knowledge needs related to raw materials, and supports the JRC in identifying how RMIS can best meet these needs. RMIS development is supported by (and should be intended as part of) a well-established and extensive network of knowledge providers in the area of raw materials, which includes – among others – EC-funded projects, European Agencies (EASME, EEA, etc.), academia, European Geological Surveys, industry and business associations. Interactions and knowledge exchanges among the various stakeholders of this network are promoted in the yearly “RMIS Workshop” events, held at the JRC in Ispra, Italy, which attracts every year an increasing number of participants. Today, the RMIS is the EC’s reference web-based knowledge platform on non-fuel, non-agriculture raw materials from primary (extracted/harvested) and secondary (recycled/recovered) sources. RMIS responds to the need of strengthening the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB) and acts as the core access point to such knowledge and as interface for policy support. The knowledge accessible through RMIS is, to the extent possible, made available for the European Union (from regional, national and EU data), with the ambition of providing it in a harmonized way. This 2019 “RMIS Roadmap & Progress Report” presents RMIS in its latest form, highlights the progress made since 2017, connects this with most recent and relevant policy and knowledge needs on raw materials, and provides an overview of the development goals that could help fulfil such needs.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

New perspectives on health choices and social interactions

This thesis provides particular insights on the interplay between social interactions and economic choices, with a focus on health care and health behaviour choices in old age.In the first chapter I examine how social network members affect the use of formal care in old age. In doing so, I explore not only their provision of informal care, but also of other types of support, including information and peer effects. I use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for 11 European countries to analyse the use of professional help, hospitals, doctor visits, GPs and specialists. As a novelty, I use newly available data on social network structure to account for the role of the extended family, as well as friends and neighbours in shaping formal care use, after controlling for informal care provision. The social network features I examine are size, composition (e.g. family vs. friends and neighbours), and homogeneity (in terms of both sex and age). My results confirm that children informal care is crucial in substituting formal care, and show how this substitution changes when one considers informal care provided more generally, by anyone. Importantly, I find that the overall size and structure of one's social network matter greatly in shaping his/her formal care use. The second chapter deals with culture and health behaviours. Specifically, I explore the determinants of dietary choices among Europeans aged 65+. I focus on individuals from 9 European countries grouped into three regions (Scandinavia, Central Europe and Mediterranean) and study their preferences for 4 food categories: dairy products; legumes/eggs; meat; fruits/vegetables. Methodologically, I employ a unique matching process to combine large-scale survey data (SHARE) with dietary composition information, standard caloric counts and price indices. Exploiting the panel dimension of my sample, I use fixed effects to capture unobserved heterogeneity in food expenditure after controlling for caloric intake and other individual-level shocks. The estimated preference indicators vary across Europe, but are not fully reflective of the commonly perceived diet differences. They are however very well aligned with the less-known dietary patterns that Europe has indeed experienced in the last decades. My analysis indicates possible channels of intervention to induce healthy ageing through diet.The third chapter abstracts from the ageing context and provides some more general results on social interactions. Our lab experiment offers new insights on Bayesian probability updating and the effects of group discussion on risk decision making. We exploit a within-subject experimental setting based on Bougheas et al. (2015). We find that the majority of participants react to conflicting signals in a rational way, while we find no convincing evidence for (reverse) confirmation bias. More importantly, we study how group interaction affects investment decisions and investigate the motives behind the observed group convergence of decisions. We find a range of motives, with a large share of participants exhibiting the effects of persuasion and/or peer effects in that they tend to maintain the group stage investment level. This result suggests that group interactions can modify the individually preferred investment levels. We also find evidence for social preferences, with some group members only temporarily compromising on their degree of risk aversion (as reflected in their investment level)