Pick a number, any number
Article Abstract:
Western European economic data is out-dated, not useful, and not uniform. The European Community's (EC) statistical office Eurostat reports that basic information on earnings and wages in industry, banking, insurance, and retailing is almost 10 years out of date, and that capital investment data is available only up to 1983. Part of the problem is that EC members have not yet agreed how to classify activity. Number-gathering agencies in most of the 12 EC countries are understaffed, poorly equipped, slow to respond, or mired in past practices with outmoded statistical tools. There is a pan-European classification system known as NACE, but to date Italy is the only nation to utilize it with any consistency. The EC's plan to create a truly internal market by 1992 makes the lack of a coordinated, detailed way of statistical information-gathering a cause for great concern.
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1988
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'Learning to walk' without state aid
Article Abstract:
The European Commission is tightening regulations on the financial support EC member nations provide their industries. It has been estimated that the 12 EC countries collectively inject 80 billion European Currency Units to their industries annually. Almost 50% of this state aid is alloted to such innately uncompetitive industries as agriculture, public transport and steel. Officials of the Commission fear that such subsidies could be used as an instrument of protectionism, thereby discouraging intra-EC competition. The Commission has already launched the Internal Market program as part of its efforts to tighten the monitoring and regulation of questionable government subsidies. The body has the authority to block state aid schemes and has started forcing aid recipients to reimburse their national governments.
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1989
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Low opinions
Article Abstract:
The low countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg, have large middle-class markets that make them a favored European testing ground for new products made by multinationals. The general perception of uniformity in the Benelux countries, however, masks the strong socio-linguistic differences and bitter rivalries that exist among the Walloons, Flemings, Luxembourgeois, and the Dutch. Business visitors are advised to take care to understand these differences to avoid potentially embarrassing cultural misjudgments.
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1991
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