The papers in this much-needed collection employ Applied General Equilibrium methodology to address a wide variety of concerns within the European Union. Contributors examine five main policy areas: * international market integration * policy simulations with alternative treatments of factor markets * policies for carbon dioxide abatement * competi

Land use change is driven by a variety of forces, including spatial policies formulated at supra-national, national, regional and local levels. The main focus of this book is to contextualise, explain and illustrate a new methodology for simulating land use change in different parts of Europe. It considers some of the more important causal factors and identifies state-of-the-art approaches to modelling human and environmental systems, and for evaluating and visualising altenative scenarios. The last part of the volume presents material from two case studies, one from The Netherlands and one from Portugal, of the implementation of a new simulation model called EuroScanner. Audience: This work will be of interest to researchers and practioners whose work involves geography, simulation and modelling, environmental planning, spatial decision making, the methodology of social sciences, and economics.

In this paper, we investigate the macroeconomic effects of the 2007-2013 cohesion policy investments in the EU. First, we present a detailed overview of the EU budget and of the contributions of the Member States for the specific policy under scrutiny. Then, we use a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model to assess the overall impact of the policy both in the short run and in the long run. Finally, we focus on the spatial spillovers generated by the policy programmes and we highlight a number of policyrelevant findings with regard to the debate over the financing of the policy and the divide between its net contributors and net beneficiaries. Our main findings suggest that cohesion policy programmes had a positive and significant impact on the economies of the EU Member States and regions, particularly in the poorest regions of the EU. Spatial spillovers imply that the progammes implemented in the main beneficiaries of the policy also benefit its main contributors. For some of these Member States, spillovers even constitute the main source of benefits from cohesion policy.

The EU is a complex political and institutional machine, with distinct procedures, language and codes. Its functioning is based on negotiations among a variety of actors at different levels (local, regional, national, supranational, inter-institutional, intra-institutional, etc.) as well as in informal and non-legislative contexts. For this reason, the EU can be difficult to understand. Negotiation roleplaying simulations can shed light on the genuine dynamics of the system and are thus becoming an essential element in teaching and training on EU matters. This book is an introduction and a guide to the EU decision-making process and its institutional settings, an essential tool for effective negotiators in the European arena, and an instrument for teachers at any level offering a series of suggestions on how to design successful simulation games.

The book considers optimal fiscal policy in the short and long run for an internationally integrating economy when public borrowing is constrained, and comes up with conclusions that shed new light on the fiscal reforms now being adopted in the European Union.

Recoge: 1. Introduction - 2. The QUEST model - 3. Policy simulations - 4. Supply shocks - 5. Conclusions.