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Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, managed to erase "free and undistorted competition" from the proposed new EU Treaty as a main aim of the European Union. Afterwards, he asked rhetorically what competition has done for Europe. This article is an attempt to reply to that very important question. The view of competition and its effects among decision-makers is likely to affect numerous policy outcomes. Throughout history, there has been a struggle between freedom and control in Europe. Competition is the result of economic freedom and the absence of interventions in the economy by the state. And it has done very much indeed for Europe. It may be the single most important reason why the average income in Western Europe is 14 times higher today than in 1820. If anything, Europe needs mo...
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Drones are the most upwardly dynamic aerospace sector, with growth rates that manufacturers of traditional aircraft can only dream of. The Pentagon's ...
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In recent policy debates in Europe, the question 'what has competition done for Europe?' has been posed at the highest levels. This question merits careful reflection. Competition as it is understood by mainstream economic and legal scholars refers not to an ideology but to inter-firm rivalry in markets. Such rivalry ensures that consumers enjoy choice, low prices, and good value for money. The authors consider the historical origins and development as well as the current role and effects of competition policy in Europe. The latter includes legal provisions that address anti-competitive practices by firms and activities aimed at promoting competition in respect of potentially anti-competitive government measures. They conclude that such policy has made essential contributions to the hig...
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Oddly enough the bulk of significant drone-world news over the past two months did not emanate from the United States, but from Europe and the Middle ...
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The principal elements of the European Commission's recent Communication on its external trade policy (titled "Global Europe") are assessed in this paper. Certain shifts are discernible in the Commission's position, in particular as they relate to the prominence given to market access objectives and to bilateral and regional trade agreements. Even so, this latest Communication is probably best thought of as an evolution in the Commission's trade policy and not an abrupt break with the past. Particular attention is given here to the potential payoffs from the proposed bilateral trade negotiations with selected Asian nations and the need for further thinking on the Commission's part with respect to the multilateral trading system.
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1 Introduction
In recent years, the Swiss franc (CHF) has increasingly been used as the currency of denomination for private sector lending in several...
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This paper analyses the European Commission's communication Global Europe and attempts to demonstrate that the substance behind the shift in emphasis towards bilateral trade policy is an extension of existing EU bilateral trade policy; that the shift is not convincingly justified by the analysis in the EU Commission papers; that the shift might be best thought of as an attempt to re-energise corporate sector support for trade liberalisation in the face of the suspension of the Doha Development Agenda and a weakening of political support for trade liberalisation.
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This paper investigates the impact of Austrian foreign direct investment on domestic employment in five new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (NMS5). It estimates both a static and a dynamic labor demand model using sector data for the period 1993-2004 where domestic employment depends on value added, real wage, the net capital stock and time effects. In particular, we investigate the potential complementary/ substitutive relationship between domestic and foreign affiliate employment of Austrian multinationals, disaggregated by two partner regions (that is, EU15 and NMS5). Estimates obtained using the static fixed-effects model show that domestic employment effects of foreign activities depend on the sector and the partner country (or region) considered.