Title: The effect of pandemic crises on fertility
Abstract: This paper examines the dynamic effects of pandemic crises on fertility rates for a large, unbalanced sample of 182 developed and developing countries during the period 1996–2019. We find that major pandemics are associated with significant and persistent declines in fertility rates of about 2%, on average. These effects are significantly larger for pandemics characterized by a very large number of confirmed cases relative to the population (up to 6½%) and by deep recessions (up to 5%). In addition, the effects are larger in advanced economies (up to 5%) and for younger women, on average.
Title: Regional Fiscal Spillovers: The Role of Trade Linkages
Abstract: This paper examines how fiscal shocks in a given country affect foreign regions through regional trade linkages. Applying the local projection method to a panel of 222 NUTS-2 regions in 20 European countries during the period 1993–2020, we find that countries-to-regions fiscal spillovers are positive, statistically significant, persistent, and non-negligible in size. In addition, fiscal spillovers tend to be larger when the recipient region experiences a recession, when monetary policy of the recipient country is at the zero-lower-bound, and when the recipient region and the source country are both part of the European Monetary Union.
Title: Climate change policies and emissions in European regions: disentangling sources of heterogeneity
Abstract: This article analyses the impact of climate change policies (CCPs) on emissions at the regional level. Using data for the entire sample of European NUTS-2 regions over a period of 26 years, we find that CCPs effectively reduce regional emissions, with the impact that materialises three years after the implementation of the policy. These effects are associated with an improvement in economic activity in the medium term, and are amplified in regions with high innovation and investment capacity, and good local institutions.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2023.2241544
Title: Crises and energy markets reforms
Abstract: The spikes in energy prices observed following recent major global shocks—e.g., COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war —as well as issues related to the diffusion of renewable energy power generation, have reopened the debate about the design of electricity markets and the role of the “state” vs. “market” in the electricity markets governance. In this article, we contribute to this debate by looking at the effect of economic crises on energy markets regulation. We find that, historically, economic crises have been associated with a persistent tightening in energy markets regulation (i.e., more restrictions to competition), with the effect being larger during periods of high economic and policy uncertainty and when governments were politically strong—that is, characterized by a larger majority, in majoritarian systems, and at the beginning of their mandate.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107706