A model-based assessment of the macroeconomic impact of EU structural funds on the new Member States

This paper gives a model-based analysis of the potential macro-economic impact of European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds payments on the economies of the new Member States. The model used is a four-region DSGE model with human capital accumulation and endogenous technological change. The framework that we adopt is the Jones (2005) extension of the endogenous growth model, which uses a variety approach for modelling knowledge investment. The EU funds average around 1.5 percent of GDP and are used for investment in infrastructure, human capital and R&D. The model simulations show this can lead to significant gains in output, both in the short as well as in the long run.Fiscal transfers, Structural Funds, public investment, DSGE modelling, Varga, in 't Veld

How to close the productivity gap between the US and Europe: A quantitative assessment using a semi-endogenous growth model

This paper uses a semi-endogenous growth model to identify possible sources for three interrelated stylised differences between the EU and the US, namely a higher level of productivity and knowledge investment and larger skill premia in the US compared to the EU. The model allows us to explain these differences in terms of differences in subsidies to R and D, mark ups, administrative entry barriers and financial frictions.The paper provides a ranking about the relative importance of these factors. Goods market competition and both administrative and financial entry barriers are the most important explanatory factors for lower productivity in the EU, while entry barriers explain the bulk of the knowledge investment gap and high skilled wage premia.productivity differences endogenous growth R and D market structure skill composition dynamic general equilibrium modelling Economic P how to close the productivity gap between the US a quantitative assessment using a semi-endogenou Varga Roeger in 't Veld European Economy. Economic Papers

Structural Reforms in the EU: A simulation-based analysis using the QUEST model with endogenous growth

This paper describes the endogenous growth version of the QUEST III model and uses it to analyse the macroeconomic impact of various structural reform measures. This paper describes a micro-founded DSGE model with endogenous growth that is used to analyse the macroeconomic impact of structural reforms in Europe. The new QUEST III model is a useful tool for analysing the costs and benefits of reforms in terms of concrete and quantifiable policy measures, in particular fiscal policy instruments such as taxes, benefits, subsidies and education expenditures, administrative costs faced by firms and regulatory indices. Our results confirm the beneficial effects on output and employment of skill-biased tax reforms, measures that improve the skill composition of the labour force, R&D subsidies, raising competition in final goods market, increased financial market integration and measures that remove entry barriers in certain markets. The model also allows us to examine the adjustment path and the time lags involved before these benefits can be reaped.Structural reforms, endogenous growth, R&D, DSGE modelling, Roeger, Varga , in 't Veld, Structural Reforms in the EU: A simulation-based analysis using the QUEST model with endogenous growth

Occupation probability of harmonic-oscillator quanta for microscopic cluster-model wave functions

We present a new and simple method of calculating the occupation probability of the number of total harmonic-oscillator quanta for a microscopic cluster-model wave function. Examples of applications are given to the recent calculations including $\alpha+n+n$-model for $^6$He, $\alpha+t+n+n$-model for $^9$Li, and $\alpha+\alpha+n$-model for $^9$Be as well as the classical calculations of $\alpha+p+n$-model for $^6$Li and $\alpha+\alpha+\alpha$-model for $^{12}$C. The analysis is found to be useful for quantifying the amount of excitations across the major shell as well as the degree of clustering. The origin of the antistretching effect is discussed.Comment: 9 page

Cultivating Ecological Imagination with a Web-Based Mythology

This generative, theoretical descriptive paper, presents a framework I have designed to help teachers create on-line lessons that weave science from the curriculum into mythology. By mythologizing the curriculum, the teacher broadens the mindset of their students by allowing them to see the living-Earth as interconnected. This framework is timely, as many students are reacting to the policy around climate change, or absence of it, with fear and anxiety. The culminating artistic project of the digital game provides an opportunity for expression. It calls on the player to create a work of art that connects what they have learned from the game with their own experiences. The artistic project values the perspective of each contributor so that their anxieties can be heard. A direction for future research is a study that is embedded in a workshop for teachers. The workshop gives teachers an opportunity to learn about the framework while the study aims to learn about the myth-building experiences of teachers. The study follows the arts-based-research paradigm so that primacy can be given to the myths created by the teachers. As an exemplar of this framework, I present an on-line game I have created that connects several domains pertinent to the education of climate change including the personal, the social, and the scientific. The Google Sites game includes an assessment with instructions

Off-diagonal disorder in the Anderson model of localization

We examine the localization properties of the Anderson Hamiltonian with additional off-diagonal disorder using the transfer-matrix method and finite-size scaling. We compute the localization lengths and study the metal-insulator transition (MIT) as a function of diagonal disorder, as well as its energy dependence. Furthermore we investigate the different influence of odd and even system sizes on the localization properties in quasi one-dimensional systems. Applying the finite-size scaling approach in conjunction with a nonlinear fitting procedure yields the critical parameters of the MIT. In three dimensions, we find that the resulting critical exponent of the localization length agrees with the exponent for the Anderson model with pure diagonal disorder.Comment: 12 pages including 4 EPS figures, accepted for publication in phys. stat. sol. (b

Comment on ``Critical Behavior in Disordered Quantum Systems Modified by Broken Time--Reversal Symmetry''

In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1003 (1998)] Hussein and Pato employed the maximum entropy principle (MEP) in order to derive interpolating ensembles between any pair of universality classes in random matrix theory. They apply their formalism also to the transition from random matrix to Poisson statistics of spectra that is observed for the case of the Anderson-type metal-insulator transition. We point out the problems with the latter procedure.Comment: 1 page in PS, to appear in PRL Sept. 2