In the debate on global imbalances, the euro area countries received inreasing attention since the outbreak of the financial crisis. While the current account is on balance for the entire area, divergences between individual member states have increased since the introduction of the common currency and are part of the excessive imbalances procedure. This paper explores the determinants of the imbalances ...
Health care is an important sector in all European countries showing a high dynamic in the past. In 2011 about 23 million persons were employed in health and social care, that is to say 10.4 % of total employment. The share of health care expenditures in GDP was 10 %. The health care workforce increased despite the overall trend of declining employment also during the economic crisis. The high dynamic ...
The European climate targets until 2050 require an adaptation of the generation portfolio in terms of renewable and fossil based generation. Assumptions on the timeline of the targets and the availability and costs of generation technologies are used in energy system models to optimize the cost minimal system transformation. The results include investments in generation technologies and their national ...
After the global financial crisis, some governments in the EU experienced serious debt financing problems, while others were less affected. This paper seeks to shed light on the divergent fiscal performance by assessing the fiscal conduct in the EU countries before and after the outbreak of the crisis. Fiscal reaction functions of the primary balance are estimated for different groups of EU countries ...
In northern Europe wind energy has become a dominating renewable energy source due to natural conditions and national support schemes. However, the uncertainty about wind generation affects existing network infrastructure and power production planning of generators and cannot not be fully diminished by wind forecasts. In this paper we develop a stochastic electricity market model to analyze the impact ...
