Title (en)
Macroeconomic Imbalances and Structural Change in the EMU
Language
English
Description (en)
WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 69, 45 pages Macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU are at the heart of the current crisis. A widely popular explanation for the high current account deficits in the Southern European countries is that they lack a large, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector. The paper tests the hypothesis that parts of the structural change which happened in the EU before 2008 were supported by the divergent unit labour cost developments in the EMU. We look into patterns of structural change and sectoral competitiveness in all EU member countries and assess their linkages by means of a descripitve analysis as well as through econometric estimations. Our results broadly support the hypothesis. Structural policies alone to foster new competitive export-oriented industries in Southern Europe in order to reduce macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU would not be efficient without accompanying adjustments in relative labour costs.
Keywords (en)
Macroeconomic imbalancesstructural changelabour costsdynamic panel regression
HTTP/WWW
http://www.foreurope.eu
Author of the digital object
Stefan Ederer
Author of the digital object
Peter Reschenhofer
Publisher
WWWforEurope
Judge
Kurt Bayer
OpenAIRE Version Type
publishedVersion
Format
application/pdf
OpenAIRE Access Rights
openAccess
Dewey Decimal Classification
Macroeconomics & related topics
European Projects
Socio-economic sciences and the humanities
Type of publication
Working Paper
Additional allocation
Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO),Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO),
European Union (all programmes)
290647
Publication Date
2014-10-16