The goal of this paper is to investigate the validity of PPP for a heterogeneous group of 12 transition countries with respect to dollar and euro. The analysis relies on monthly data frequency covering the period of 1994-2008. The first generation of panel unit root tests is based on the cross-sectional independency hypothesis. This paper applies five first generation unit root tests. The cross-sectional independency hypothesis is rather restrictive and somewhat unrealistic in the majority of macroeconomic applications of unit root tests. Thus, the second generation of panel unit root tests is characterized by the rejection of the cross-sectional independence hypothesis. Within this second generation of tests, two main approaches are distinguished. The first one relies on the factor structure approach. The second approach consists of imposing few or none restrictions on the residuals covariance matrix and has been adopted the use of nonlinear instrumental variables methods or the use of bootstrap approaches to solve the nuisance parameter problem due to cross-sectional dependency. We employ several second generation panel unit root tests in this paper to scrutinize the validity of PPP theory.

A guide for constructing and using composite indicators for policy makers, academics, the media and other interested parties. In particular, this handbook is concerned with indicators which compare and rank country performance.

This manual gives a complete, detailed and up-to-date description of the Eurostat-OECD PPP Programme, including its organisation, the various surveys carried out by participating countries and the ways PPPs are calculated and disseminated. It also provides guidance on the use of PPPs.

Over the last ten years - especially with the 'no' votes in the French and Dutch referendums in 2010, and the victory for Brexit in 2016 - the issue of Europe has been placed at the centre of major political conflicts. Each of these crises has revealed profound splits in society, which are represented in terms of an opposition between those countries on the losing and those on the winning sides of globalisation. Inequalities beyond those between nations are critically absent from the debate. Based on major European statistical surveys, the new research in this work presents a map of social classes inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. It reveals the common features of the working class, the intermediate class and the privileged class in Europe. National features combine with social inequalities, through an account of the social distance between specific groups in nations in the North and in the countries of the South and East of Europe. The book ends with a reflection on the conditions that would be required for the emergence of a Europe-wide social movement.

First published in 1998, this volume contributes to the debate after the fall of the Soviet Union on the transition of Eastern European, former Soviet countries to a market economy. The transition was an enterprise as daring in practice and historically unprecedented as it is an analytical laboratory subject to constant reflection. The first two chapters address foreign direct investment in Central and Eastern European countries. The rebuilding of social insurance systems is then addressed, with a focus on state pension schemes. The subsequent two chapters examine the political and demographic features of transition countries, highlighting media reform as a key aspect for the consolidation of a democratic, law-based, market economy and society. Focus then turns to Poland, the country which is considered to display the most progress in the political economy of transition. Finally, the controversial issue of the electoral successes of former Communist parties in Central and Eastern Europe is discussed.