One Europe, one product, two prices-the price disparity in the EU

This article examines the price dispersion in the European Union in the last fifteen years (1990-2005). The analysis of price convergence is examined on aggregate and disaggregate levels. The macro approach is based on Comparative Price Level index calculated as the ratio between PPPs and exchange rate. The disaggregate analysis utilizes actual prices of 148 individual products sold in the 15 capital cities of the EU. The calculations comprise of sigma and beta convergence adopted from the real growth literature. The different results of the speed of convergence are obtained according to the different econometric methods. Moreover the gravity model is tested to measure the contribution of different factors in explaining the observed convergence pattern.price convergence, international price dispersion, law of one price,

Market Size, Competitiveness and Technological Frontier - the Impact of Trade Integration with the UE on Productivity in Polish Manufacturing Sectors

This paper addresses the relationship between growth of relative productivity in Polish manufacturing sectors and forces stemming from trade integration with the EU. We look at the productivity growth from the perspective of relations between Polish manufacturing sectors and the foreign ones, focusing on partner countries from the enlarged EU. Empirical analysis is based on sector level bilateral data concerning both domestic (Polish) and foreign market characteristics and degree of openness in the period 1995-2006. Main results indicate that, both in the short and long run, growth in domestic openness (independently on the direction of trade flows) exert positive effect on growth of relative productivity in Poland, while the opposite impact is exhibited by foreign openness. In addition, expansion in relative size of Polish sectors versus foreign ones is also among positive determinants of domestic labour productivity growth. The results suggest that domestic openness and market size effects have stimulated movement of Polish sectors towards the technological frontier with respect to the partner countries from the EU.labour productivity, trade, integration

Price convergence in the European Union and in the New Member States

This paper examines price dispersion in the European Union (EU15) and in three New Member States (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) between 1995 and 2006. The research is motivated by the fact that the price convergence problem is at the top of the public agenda in many New Member States (NMS). The analysis utilizes both disaggregate and aggregate price data, including the prices of 157 products and two indices constructed using two different weighting procedures. For each category of goods the price dispersion is lower in EU15 than EU15 plus 3 NMS. Sigma convergence measured as a decline in the standard deviation over time is rejected. Unit root tests reject the validity of the Law of One Price (LOOP) for most of the estimations of indices but confirm the LOOP for individual goods. The half-lives are shorter for NMS than for the EU15.price convergence, international price dispersion, law of one price

The Impact of Gender Wage Gap on Sectoral Economic Growth – Cross-country Approach

We propose an empirical analysis of testing the relationship between gender wage gap and economic growth. The study takes into account 12 manufacturing sectors in 18 OECD countries for the period between 1970 and 2005.We use industrial statistics (EU KLEMS, 2008) on female and male wages that distinguish between wages paid to different groups of workers classified according to skill level: high, medium and low. We estimate augmented production function where the malefemale wage differentials constitute a potential channel influencing growth (positively or negatively). Our research is motivated by the ambiguous results of previous empirical studies (e.g.: Seguiono 2000; Busse, Spielmann 2006; Seguino 2011; Schober, Winter-Ebmer 2011). Our main findings indicate that gender wage gap for high, medium and low-skilled workers is negatively correlated with sectoral growth. This results are confirmed in a number of robustness checks

Does migration lead to economic convergence in an enlarged European market?

This paper examines the relationship between migration and convergence for the enlarged internal market of the European Union (EU27) for the period 1990–2007. The impact of migration on growth is estimated in two ways: by including the migration rate in a growth regression and examining its impact on the convergence coefficient; and from the actual coefficient on migration, which can be interpreted as the effect of migration on long-term growth. While the first approach gives results in favour of the importance of migration on convergence even when human capital is controlled for, the results of the latter are not statistically significant.migration, economic growth, convergence

GVC and wage dispersion: Firm-level evidence from employee-employer database

Research background: Wage inequalities are still part of an interesting policy-oriented research area. Given the developments in international trade models (heterogeneity of firms) and increasing availability of micro-level data, more and more attention is paid to wage differences observed within and be-tween firms. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to address the research gap concerning limited cross-country evidence on a nexus of wage inequality?global value chains (GVCs), analysed from the perspective of wage inequality components within and between firms. Methods: This paper uses a large employee?employer database derived from the European Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), combined with sector-level indicators of GVC involvement based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). As a result, a rich database covering more than 7.5 million observations is created. The regression-based decomposition modelling technique developed by Fiorio and Jenkins (2010) is used to identify the contributions of different factors to wage inequalities, focusing on the components within and between firms. Findings & value added: The analysis presented in this paper aimed to show the contribution of GVC involvement, among various other factors, to the observed inequality of wages. Due to the use of a rich database that merges employer and employee data, the effects materialised with respect to different types of wages could be analysed separately, in particular components between and within firms. The general conclusion from the regression-based decomposition in log wages is that GVCs contribute marginally to the observed wage inequality in the European sample analysed in this paper. Some differences confronting the components within and between firms (the latter dominates) are observed; there is also certain intra sample heterogeneity in the estimated results (e.g. due to sector type or country group), but the general result is robust

Determinants of the incidence of non-academic staff in European and US HEIs

In this article, we contribute to the scant literature covering quantitative studies on the determinants of the non-academic staff incidence in higher education institutions by analysing how the proportion of non-academic staff is related to key features such as size, prestige, year of foundation and financial structure of universities. We apply nonlinear regression analysis to compare HEIs across Europe and the USA, taking into account time and cross-country heterogeneity of the two balanced panel datasets concerning European and American universities over a period of 6 years (2011–2016 for Europe and 2012–2017 for the USA). Evidence suggests that in both Europe and the USA, public and larger (if sufficiently large) as well as more research-oriented units are characterised by a higher proportion of non-academic staff. In Europe, we observe an inverted U-shaped effect of the share of non-personnel expenditure and the foundation year on the proportion of non-academic staff, while the proportion of non-academic staff decreases with the share of core and third-party funding. For the USA, we obtain similar findings except that the share of core funding and third-party funding is characterised by a U-shaped effect, and the impact of the share of non-personnel expenditure has no empirical effect on the proportion of non-academic staff. Additionally, we discover that some factors that contribute to the proportion of non-academic staff may constitute indicators of performance, suggesting the need for further research to extend our knowledge on the complex issue of the role played by non-academic staff in university performance

Nowelizacja przepisów a instytucja regresu nietypowego w ubezpieczeniach komunikacyjnych. Glosa do uchwały SN z dnia 28 marca 2019 r., III CZP 95/18

The purpose of the gloss is to analyse the impact of the amendment to the provisions on atypical recourse within the framework of compulsory motor insurance on the possibility of exercising this right in a situation where the legal basis for the insurer’s claim did not exist at the time of the accident, but already existed at the time of payment of compensation. The Supreme Court, citing only the legal nature of atypical recourse, took the position that the law in force at the time of compensation payment is applicable. The author does not share the decision. In the gloss, she presents numerous arguments in favour of the need to apply the old law, i.e. the law in force at the time of the accident, and concerning in particular the intertemporal rules and constitutional principles.Celem glosy jest analiza wpływu nowelizacji przepisów o regresie nietypowym w ramach obowiązkowych ubezpieczeń komunikacyjnych na możliwość skorzystania z tego prawa w sytuacji, gdy podstawa prawna żądania ubezpieczyciela nie istniała w chwili wypadku, lecz istniała już w chwili wypłaty odszkodowania. Sąd Najwyższy, powołując się wyłącznie na charakter prawny regresu nietypowego, stanął na stanowisku, że właściwe jest prawo obowiązujące w chwili wypłaty odszkodowania. Autorka nie aprobuje zapadłego rozstrzygnięcia. W glosie przedstawia liczne argumenty przemawiające za koniecznością stosowania w tej sytuacji prawa dawnego, a więc obowiązującego w chwili wypadku, dotyczące w szczególności reguł intertemporalnych oraz zasad konstytucyjnych