The corona crisis is changing the global economy daily, with the results still being uncertain. The crisis has hit all sectors, from services to industries and agriculture. The most serious problems have been encountered by SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs who have had their businesses disappear and are in a very critical situation.
To limit the economic and social damage caused by this critical situation, a series of measures is needed, extending from coping with the emergency stage towards recovery and rebuilding.
After the financial crisis, it became clear that the fragmented environment in the EU made it difficult to deal decisively and effectively with problems, particularly in the financial system. A common and cross-border approach became essential/were needed. The challenge was to make the financial institutions and markets more stable, competitive, safe and resilient. From that perspective, the plans for a fully-fledged banking union and a capital markets union were the right response.
This report provides a study of the retail sector, which is one of the biggest in Europe in terms of the number of enterprises active and individuals employed. The study aims to provide practical insights on revitalising small retailers in urban and rural areas. The underlying objective is achieved through identifying the main trends, challenges and opportunities faced by small retailers, and outlining what types of good practices have been put into place to support these enterprises in city-centres, including highlights on the situation of small retailers located in rural areas.
This Study aims at making a comprehensive overview of the EU State aid rules and their impact on SMEs in the period 2014-2018 with the goal to identify which policy issues create the greatest challenges for SMEs (incl. social partners and NGOs), and what are the best practices available to tackle the issues.
This study analyses the impact of changes in corporate tax on investment, growth, employment and public finance. It is based on both a review of existing theoretical and empirical literature and a new event study considering the economic impact of significant changes in corporate tax rates in developed economies between 1981 and 2014.
Over the years, European value chains have become increasingly relevant to employment in the EU. While research on industrial value chains is broadly covered in recent years, the effects of value-chains in European service sectors still needs to be quantified. Especially the impact of cross border services in the EU need further coverage. This study tries to fill this gap by quantifying the number of employees dependent on the exports of services to other member states.
This report was prepared by the Institute for Market Economics (IME) and is dedicated to the study of skills mismatches in the EU and their effect on the competitiveness of EU businesses. It includes a comprehensive review of existing literature on the issue and outlines some of the main conclusions regarding the relation of skill mismatches to education, personal and aggregate productivity, labour market dynamics and outcomes, innovation capacity and competitiveness.
