journal articles

We create a multidimensional index that accounts for five dimensions of energy deprivation: two objective indicators of “low income, high costs,” and “high actual cost,” as well as three subjective indicators of “not warm enough home,” “housing faults,” and “bills difficulties.” We define households as poor if at least two deprivation forms exist. We apply our measure to Poland. In 2017, 10% of households in Poland suffered from multidimensional energy poverty. Households living in buildings built before 1946, households living in rural areas, and households dependent on retirement and disability pensions were at the highest risk of multidimensional energy poverty.

We study minimum wage violations over the period 2003–12 in ten Central and Eastern European countries which all have national statutory minimum wages. We measure the incidence and depth of violation, and estimated individual, workplace and macro-level correlates of non-compliance. While the incidence of violation remains relatively low, the workers that minimum wage policies seek to protect appear to be the most likely to be affected by non-compliance. Over time, higher minimum-to-average wage ratios are related to a higher incidence of violation.

We study job retention rates – the shares of workers who continue to work in the same job over the next five years – in Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Retention rates among workers aged 55–59 are low and amount to about half of the retention rates among prime-aged workers. Only in Poland, the retention rates of older workers have increased for both men and women between 1998 and 2013. The individuals least likely to retain jobs after age 60 were women, those with lower education, working in industry, in medium or low-skilled occupations, and those living with a non-working partner.

We study the changes in the task content of jobs in 24 European countries between 1998 and 2015. We link the O*NET occupational data with the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), and use the methodology of Acemoglu and Autor (2011). The intensity of non-routine cognitive tasks grew in all countries, while the intensity of manual tasks declined. Workforce upskilling was the major factor contributing to these developments. The intensity of routine cognitive tasks grew in most Central and Eastern European countries but declined in Western European countries. This difference is attributed to the contrasting patterns of structural changes in these groups of countries.

This paper aims to identify factors behind cyclical fluctuations and differences in adjustments to shocks in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain (GIPS) and a reference country – Germany. All GIPS countries were more vulnerable to productivity and foreign demand shocks than Germany. They would have experienced lower macroeconomic volatility if they reacted to their shocks like Germany.

We apply a multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to study two types of taxation: tax on material inputs used by industry, energy, construction, and transport sectors, and tax on output of these sectors. We allow for the endogenous adoption of resource-saving technologies. We calibrate the model for the EU27 area using an IO matrix. Input and output taxation create contrasting incentives and have opposite effects on resource efficiency. The material input tax induces investment in efficiency-improving technology which, in the long term, results in GDP and employment by 15%–20% higher than a comparable output tax. We also find that using revenues to reduce taxes on labour has stronger beneficial effects for the input tax.