The aim of the article is to show the mechanisms that led Finland to integration with the European Union. Despite finding themselves in the Soviet sphere of influence after World War II, the Finns ...managed to build a welfare state and fully integrated with Western Europe. Due to its geopolitical location, the Europeanization of Finland had a special course.
The Effects of Government Spending in the Eurozone Gabriel, Ricardo Duque; Klein, Mathias; Pessoa, Ana Sofia
Journal of the European Economic Association,
08/2023, Letnik:
21, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
Using a newly assembled rich dataset at the regional level, this paper provides novel empirical evidence on the effects of fiscal policy in the Eurozone. Our baseline estimates reveal a ...government spending relative output multiplier around 2, an employment multiplier of 1.4, and a cost per job created of approximately €30,000. Moreover, we find that a regional fiscal stimulus leads to a significant increase in private investment, productivity, and durable consumption. The labor share also increases, as do total hours worked driven by changes in the extensive margin (total employment), whereas the intensive margin (hours per worker) barely reacts. Contrary to the common policy narrative of strong positive spillover effects, we estimate only small regional fiscal spillovers. Finally, our findings reveal strong heterogeneities across economic sectors, states of the economy, and member states.
Nearly 50 million km2 of global land experiences seasonal transitions from predominantly frozen to thawed conditions, significantly impacting various ecosystems and hydrologic processes. In this ...study, we assessed the capability to retrieve surface freeze–thaw (FT) conditions using Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data time series at two agro-forested study sites, St-Marthe and St-Maurice, in southern Québec, Canada. In total, 18 plots were instrumented to monitor soil temperature and derive soil freezing probabilities at 2 and 10 cm depths during 2020–21 and 2021–22. Three change detection algorithms were tested: backscatter differences (∆σ) derived from thawed reference (Delta), the freeze–thaw index (FTI), and a newly developed exponential freeze–thaw algorithm (EFTA). Various probabilistic mixed models were compared to identify the model and predictor variables that best predicted soil freezing probability. VH polarization backscatter signals processed with the EFTA and used as predictors in a logistic model led to improved predictions of soil freezing probability at 2 cm (Pseudo-R2 = 0.54) compared to other approaches. The EFTA could effectively address the limitations of the Delta algorithm caused by backscatter fluctuations in the shoulder seasons, resulting in more precise estimates of FT events. Furthermore, the inclusion of crop types as plot-level effects within the probabilistic model also slightly improved the soil freezing probability prediction at each monitored plot, with marginal and conditional R2 values of 0.59 and 0.61, respectively. The model accurately classified observed binary ‘frozen’ or ‘thawed’ states with 85.2% accuracy. Strong cross-level interactions were also observed between crop types and the EFTA derived from VH backscatter, indicating that crop type modulated the backscatter response to soil freezing. This study represents the first application of the EFTA and a probabilistic approach to detect frozen soil conditions in agro-forested areas in southern Quebec, Canada.
Conclusive evidence on the relationship between corruption and migration has remained scant in the literature to date. Using 2008–2018 data on bilateral migration flows across EU28 and EFTA countries ...and four measures of corruption, we show that corruption acts as both push and pull factors on migration patterns. Based on a gravity model, a 1-unit increase in the corruption level in the origin country is associated with an 11% increase in out-migration. The same 1-unit increase in corruption in the destination country is associated with a 10% decline in in-migration.
This article examines the evolution of the European Free Trade Association's (EFTA) relationship with Yugoslavia during the reign of Josip Broz Tito. EFTA has largely been written out of accounts of ...Western Europe's ties to Belgrade, despite being one of the two principal economic forums on the continent alongside the European Economic Community (EEC). This article, by contrast, posits that the relationship did matter. Notwithstanding its status as an intergovernmental, purely economic free trade bloc, EFTA's attitude was in fact shaped by politico-strategic considerations relating to the Cold War - be it concerns about the independence of Yugoslavia vis-a-vis the Soviet bloc or the prospect that ties with Belgrade might act as a stepping-stone towards East-West détente. The cooperation that emerged should therefore act as a reminder of EFTA's agency during the Cold War and its relevance to post-war European politics. Yet while this relationship pervaded over three decades, its intensity waxed and waned, and EFTA-Yugoslav cooperation often fell short of what both the Yugoslavs and some of EFTA's own members hoped would materialise. As well as tracing the relationship that did develop, therefore, the article also explores why it did not translate into deeper, more meaningful collaboration.
Abstract
The independence of judges sitting on international courts is constrained in part by their accountability to the states that appoint them. The interaction between these two principles is ...particularly stark where judges are able to have their terms of office on the bench renewed, subject to the agreement of states to re-nominate and reappoint them. The present article seeks to examine this interaction, initially in the context more generally of international judicial decision-making bodies, while also considering options designed to reduce the likelihood of the reoccurrence of problems with respect to reappointments. It then provides a more detailed case study of the Norwegian reappointment saga at the EFTA Court and suggests possible ways forward designed to enhance judicial independence in this procedure.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, PRFLJ, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The principle of effectiveness is an unwritten principle of European Economic Area law (EEA). It is required by the general principle of homogeneity with European Union law (Article1(1) EEA ...Agreement) and the loyalty principle (Art. 3 EEA Agreement). This study explores how this concept has been applied in practice by the EFTA Court within the framework of this legal order during 2010-2020. This European Court has confirmed the existence of the principle as inherent in the EEA Agreement and mostly refers to effectiveness in three different strands of jurisprudence (where effectiveness takes different meanings). The findings of the study show that, while the Court has used the doctrine to guarantee the judicial protection and justiciability of individual rights; it has not defined, clarified or elaborated on the meaning, content and scope of this important principle, A table of most important case-law of the EFTA Court on effectiveness and its different meanings is to be found in the conclusions.
The world trade system appears to gravitate toward trade blocks. While the European Union (EU) is by far the largest trade block in Europe, the subject of this research is focused on another European ...block, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), with the member states of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Unlike the EU, the EFTA countries can enter into Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) individually, with another country, whenever they choose. The world's largest increasing trading house over the last two decades is China, but it has not yet signed an FTA with the EU. However, China has a bilateral agreement with both Iceland and Switzerland. The methodology of this research involves using the STATA program for statistical regression estimation of simultaneous equation system since it estimates the interaction between the trade going between the countries. This allows for considering substitution or complementary effects between the goods flowing back and forth between the countries. The methodology is based on the means of the gravity model. This research aims to answer the following question: is it beneficial for small countries such as Iceland and Switzerland to have a bilateral agreement with China? This research focuses on estimating trade flows, in US dollars, between China and Iceland on the one hand and between China and Switzerland on the other. Results from regression analysis indicate that when accounting for the FTAs, import to Iceland from China positively affects exports from Iceland to China, but not the other way around. However, estimates for trade between Switzerland and China show the reverse of this to be true. When presenting and analyzing literature and economic studies in the field, selection data and presenting the three-stage regression result, accounting for the Free Trade Agreements with China, our conclusion is the following: The trade relation of China with the two small European countries of Iceland and Switzerland has developed such that in 2014 the Free Trade Agreements between China and Iceland, and China and Switzerland came into effect. A combination of the three-stage least-squares regression, as well as the gravity model, allowing for accountancy of FTAs is applied. We conclude that when accounting for the FTAs, import to Iceland from China has stimulated exports from Iceland to China, but not the other way around. However, the estimates for Switzerland are reverse to the estimates received for Iceland.
The EFTA Court has on numerous occasions faced arguments based on international law rules that exist outside the EEA system, and it has dealt with such arguments in disparate ways. The Court is ...receptive to arguments based on the European Convention on Human Rights, while flatly refusing to engage with arguments based on other treaties. This article outlines the Courtʼs practice in such cases and tries to explain it, with the best explanation being the Courtʼs desire and obligation to maintain homogeneity between the EEA and the EU system. In the future, the Court may be presented with arguments based on the law of the World Trade Organization or the aftermath of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, and this article suggests how the Court may respond.
Relations between Switzerland and the European Union are in bad shape and the Swiss are tearing each other apart on this issue. There are two major issues at stake. First, the Swiss government is ...dithering over whether or not to initial a new Institutional agreement with the European Union (EU), although it was finalized by the negotiators in November 2018. In the event of non-acceptance by Switzerland, the European Union has already announced retaliatory measures. Secondly, in September 2020, Swiss citizens will have to vote on a popular initiative to scrap the agreement on the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the EU. A positive vote would sound the death knell for the bilateral treaties between both entities as they are bound together by a guillotine clause. These difficulties between Switzerland and the EU are certainly not new. But two fresh developments have arisen. On the one hand, the support of the socialists and trade unionists for the bilateral way is waning. On the other hand, the European Union has become less flexible than it previously was. The worst should, logically, be avoided because the Swiss have always been a pragmatic people and solutions are relatively easy to find. But an accumulation of blunders, combined with misperceptions of the actual power relations, could prove fatal.
Switzerland, EU external relations, EU external agreements, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), European Economic Area (EEA), Institutional agreement, Free movement of people, immigration, referendum, Brexit
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