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Closing the prosperity gap between regions has always been a key political aspiration of the European Union – and cohesion policy is the primary means to achieve that goal. Europe is currently undergoing a digital and green transition that is drastically changing the way its economy works. How well prepared are regions to capitalise on the twin transition? And what impact will it have on regional cohesion in Europe? Our study finds that greening and digitalising the economy will likely widen the gap between rich and poor regions in Europe.

Thematic or high level priority budgeting is on the rise all over the world. In Austria, it has been an issue for many years. Gender budgeting has even made it into the federal constitution and received a big push with the budget reform 2013. Recently, climate budgeting has received increased attention and efforts to include it in the budget documentation have been undertaken. But still thematic or high level priority budgeting, however, leads a somewhat shadowy existence and remains below its potential in Austria. This is the motivation for this presentation, which intends to examine the logic of thematic or high level priority budgeting as well as international developments in the field with a focus on gender budgeting.

Das FIW – Kompetenzzentrum "Forschungsschwerpunkt Internationale Wirtschaft" kündigt seine 15. Forschungskonferenz "International Economics" an und bittet um die Einreichung von (vollständigen) Arbeitspapieren, die auf der Konferenz präsentiert werden sollen. Das Hauptziel der Konferenz ist es, Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern, die auf dem Gebiet der "Internationalen Wirtschaft" arbeiten, eine Plattform zu bieten, um aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zu präsentieren. Beiträge von Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, jungen Fakultätsmitgliedern und jungen Forscherinnen und Forschern in ähnlichen Positionen sind besonders willkommen, da die Konferenz junge Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern unterstützen und ermutigen soll, indem sie ihnen die Möglichkeit gibt, ihre Arbeit sowohl anderen jungen Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern als auch erfahrenen älteren Forscherinnen und Forschern vorzustellen. Die Konferenz soll auch Forscherinnen und Forschern und politische Entscheidungsträgerinnen und -trägern zusammenbringen, um ein Forum für Diskussionen darüber zu bieten, wie empirische Erkenntnisse effektiver in die aktuelle Wirtschaftspolitik einfließen können.

Am 24. Februar jährt sich der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine zum ersten Mal. In einem digitalen Medienchat spricht Gabriel Felbermayr am 23. Februar 2023 um 10:00 Uhr über die wirtschaftlichen Folgen des Krieges in Europa und steht für Pressefragen zur Verfügung.

Financial markets can support the transition to a low-carbon economy by redirecting funds from highly emissive to clean investments. We study whether European stock markets incorporate carbon prices in company valuations and to what degree they discriminate between firms with different carbon intensities. Using a novel dataset of stock prices and carbon intensities of 338 European publicly traded companies between 2013 and 2021, we find a strongly statistically significant relationship between weekly carbon price changes and stock returns. Crucially, this relationship depends on firms' carbon intensity: the higher the carbon costs a firm faces, the poorer its stock performance during the periods of carbon price increases. Emissions that firms cover with free allowances however do not impact this relationship, illustrating how both carbon pricing and disclosures are needed for financial markets to foster climate change mitigation. The relationship we identify can provide an incentive for firms to decarbonise. We argue in favour of more ambitious carbon pricing policies, as this would strengthen the stock-market incentive channel while causing only limited financial stability risk for stocks.

The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) is organising the 13th international workshop in the field of regional economics in honour of Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and member of WIFO's Scientific Board. This event aims at bringing together researchers from various fields of economics working mainly at the regional level to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge. Glyn Wittwer of the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) in Melbourne will serve as our keynote speaker for the workshop. Glyn is a regional dynamic CGE modelling expert. He has played a major role in developing databases for several country-specific versions of TERM (The Enormous Regional Model), a "bottom-up" multiregional CGE model developed at CoPS. His list of projects includes modelling of the impacts of major dam and transport projects, drought and water trading, flood, hypothetical plant disease scenarios, productivity scenarios, wine tax scenarios, major mine construction projects, industry closures and the aftermath of civil disruption.

Trade sanctions are a common instrument of diplomatic retaliation. To guide current and future policy, we ask: What is the most cost-efficient way to impose trade sanctions against Russia? To answer this question, we build a quantitative model of international trade with input-output connections. Sanctioning countries simultaneously choose import tariffs to maximise their income and to minimise Russia's income, with different weights placed on these objectives. We find, first, that for countries with a small willingness to pay for sanctions against Russia, the most cost-efficient sanction is a uniform, about 20 percent tariff against all Russian products. Second, if countries are willing to pay at least 0.7 $ for each 1 $ drop in Russian welfare, an embargo on Russia's mining and energy products – with tariffs above 50 percent on other products – is the most cost-efficient policy. Finally, if countries target politically relevant sectors, an embargo against Russia's mining and energy sector is the cost-efficient policy even when there is a small willingness to pay for sanctions.

Le Corbusier's 1929 vision for the modern city was that of bright housing set into green open space. Following Le Corbusier, houses need to withdraw from the streetfront. Jane Jacobs (1961) instead pointed to the importance of "eyes on the street" in making streets safe. For Jacobs, houses need to align with the streetfront. Today developers around the world overwhelmingly appear to pursue the Corbusian vision. This paper provides an economic rationale for, and a welfare assessment of, the discontiguous streetfront that results. Daylight has become internal to large developers' designs. This is why their houses are bright. Yet "eyes on the street" remain external even to large developers' designs. This is why these developers' streetfronts are blind. We argue for redressing the balance between "daylight externality" and "streetfront externality", and suggest supporting institutions. Ultimately contemporary architecture should align better with the street.

The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and the Competence Center "Research Focus International Economics" cordially invite you to the next FIW Workshop on "Gravity at Sixty". Keynote Lectures by James Anderson and Arnau Costinot.