Perspectives

The research of the department in this area concerns the impact of economic integration on productivity and socio-economic inequality and the relationship between income inequality, redistribution and economic growth.
In particular, we treat the following aspects:

• Wage and employment effects of economic integration in imperfect labor market competition;
• The determinants of international migration and the impact of migration on economic development;
• The effect of goods and factor mobility in the taxation and redistribution policies with spatial externalities;
• Estimating and explaining government efficiency;
• The impact of collective labor agreement and product market liberalization on innovation behavior and productivity of enterprises;
• The effect of income redistribution on economic growth;
• Internationalization behavior of the (Belgian) companies;
• The labor market effects of foreign direct investment on (companies in) the source country;
• The effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity of local companies;
• The role of multinationals as a disseminator of knowledge in the European Union.