This paper analyses theoretical and empirical scientific literature about the impact of technological innovations on unemployment, considering the former as a key driver of long-term productivity and economic growth. Using panel data from 25 European countries for the period of 2000–2012, we aim to examine whether technological innovations affect unemployment. We used triadic patent families per million inhabitants as our main proxy for technological innovations, as well as other unemployment controls, in our model, which were estimated using System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM). Finding no significant relationship between technological innovations and unemployment in our base estimation, we re-estimated it testing the impact with a time lag as well as using alternative proxies for technological innovations. Overall, the research estimations do not suggest that technological innovations have an effect on unemployment.

Energy taxes are one of the main market-based tools directed toward mitigating climate change in the European Union (EU). Therefore, the aim of this article was to analyze whether energy taxes really contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the successful implementation of climate change policy. Applying the Granger causality test on time series and using panel data analysis, the direct and indirect (via the reduction of fossil energy consumption (FEC) and energy intensity (EI), as well as the increase of renewable energy consumption (REN)) impacts of energy taxes on GHG emissions in EU countries were analyzed in the present study. The results showed that energy taxes did not Granger-cause fossil energy consumption, energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, and GHG emissions in almost all EU countries. Regarding the panel data analysis, the results showed that energy taxes did not, directly and indirectly, influence GHG emissions. Therefore, this paper shows that generally, energy tax policy in EU countries is ineffective. Thus, tax policy should be reformed and matched with an emissions trading system in seeking climate change mitigation.

A growing number of recent research analyse the trade balance impact on economic growth. However, ambiguous results of studies imply the need for the research as the deteriorating trade balance hinders economic growth. This research aims to investigate the impact of the trade balance on economic growth as well as to evaluate it during the periods of trade deficit. Our estimations are based on the European Union (EU) 28 countries panel data over the period of 1998–2018, using the OLS method of multivariate regression analysis with fixed effects and focusing on two strategies: (i) including all trade balance periods, and (ii) adding deficit dummy variable seeking to evaluate whether during deficit periods we can find different and significant effect on economic growth. Evaluating all trade balance periods, the obtained results indicate the negative and lagging impact of the trade balance on economic growth, and no significant differences of the impact were identified during the deficit periods. The deterioration of trade balance reduces average economic growth and from linear relationship evaluation, we can state that it does not matter whether it starts from trade deficit or surplus result. The results obtained may also obscure the possibility of a non-linear effect, which would suggest a stronger negative impact on economic growth when the trade balance deteriorates in the presence of a large trade deficit. When discussing directions for further research it would make sense to consider other factors, such as the size of the deficit and its permanence.

This paper seeks to enrich the field of research on the topic of the impact of remittances on long-run economic growth. Using an unbalanced panel data covering a sample of 116 countries with different development levels over the period 1990–2014, we studied the interaction between remittances and the level of economic development, as well as its impact on long-run economic growth—because the impact of remittances could be influenced by the development level of the receiving countries. In parallel, we explored the hypothesis about diminishing a country’s capacity to use remittances for promoting long-run economic growth as the abundance of remittances increases. To control the endogeneity while estimating the impact of remittances on long-run economic growth, we used OLS (ordinary least squares) with FD (first differences) transformation and FE (fixed effects) approaches and other controls of long-run growth. Our results showed that in general remittances have a positive impact on long-run economic growth, but the impact differs based on the country’s economic development level and the abundance of remittances in the economy.

Research on convergence deals with the question of whether regional disparities are decreasing over time. Aiming to decompose EU disparities covering regions of all levels, this paper fills the gap of the empirical research on convergence in the EU in the following ways: (i) the research updates the assessment of regional disparities in the EU emphasizing, but not limited to, the analysis at the NUTS 3 level; (ii) based on a constructed three-level Theil index, the research decomposes EU disparities into between-country, within-country at the NUTS 2 level, and within the NUTS 2 region at the NUTS 3 level components, covering the period of 1995–2014 and all EU regions, (iii) it examines the linkages between the development of innovation and technology, sustainability, and evolution of disparities. Our main findings suggest that convergence in the EU is still present at different regional levels, but its speed is slowing down. Total EU disparities were decreasing mainly because of reducing disparities between member states. At the same time, in the majority of EU member states, old and new, within-country disparities were growing at all regional levels, and now within-country disparities account for almost two-fifths of total EU disparities.

The impact of economic growth on unemployment is commonly agreed and extensively studied. However, how age and gender shape this relationship is not as well explored, while there is an absence of research on whether education plays a role. We apply Okun’s law, aiming to estimate age-, gender- and educational attainment level-specific unemployment rate sensitivity to cyclical output fluctuations. Since the empirical literature provides evidence in favour of the non-linear impact of output change on the unemployment rate, supporting higher effects of recessions than that of expansions, we aim to enrich this analysis by estimating how the impact of positive/negative output change on the specific unemployment rate varies with the level of the total unemployment. The analysis is based on 28 European Union (EU) countries and covers the period of 1995–2019. The equations are estimated by least-squares dummy variables (LSDV), using Prais–Winsten standard errors. For the robustness check, we alternatively used Newey–West standard errors to address serial-correlations and heteroscedasticity, and the Arellano–Bond estimator for some specifications that assume dynamics in the panel. The results support previous findings of male- and youth-specific Okun’s coefficients and reveal that they significantly stand out just over the periods of negative output change. Additionally, we find that educational attainment level is an important factor explaining the heterogeneity of unemployment reaction to output change.