Never mind the Spitzenkandidaten: It's all about politics. CEPS Commentary, 6 June 2014

In this new commentary, CEPS Fellow Marco Incerti argues that the so-called technical and legal arguments that are being advanced against the lead candidates’ (Spitzenkandidaten) selection process actually boil down to political choices − choices that are set against the increasingly confrontational climate between the European Council and European Parliament that has characterised their dealings in recent years.

Simulation of Land Use and Investment Behaviour under Different Policy Scenarios: Results of the extended farm/household model. Factor Markets Working Paper No. 27, July 2012

Factor markets are a central issue in analyses of farm development and of agricultural sector vitality. Among the different production factors, land is one of the most studied. Several studies seek to estimate the effect of government policy payments on land value or land rental prices. The studies mostly agree that government payments and other types of policy support are significant in explaining land prices and account for a large share of them. In October 2011, the European Commission published a new policy proposal for the common agricultural policy (CAP) up to 2020. The proposed regulation includes a shift from historical to regional payments. The objective of this paper is to provide an ex ante analysis of the impact of the new CAP policy instruments on the land market. In particular, the effect of the regionalisation of payments in Italy is examined. The analysis is based on the use of a mathematical programming model to simulate the changes in land demand for a farm in Emilia Romagna. The results highlight the relevance of the new policy mechanism in determining a change in land demand. Yet the effect is highly dependent on initial ownership of entitlements under the historical payment scheme.

Father, Mother, Child? Eight Trends in Family Life for Policymakers to Keep in Mind. Summary

The family is the first context for a child’s development, and the most important. This is where children begin to develop their own identities and first experience a sense of closeness, community and security. Family is a domain where learning takes place – for all generations. In their daily interactions, children, mothers and fathers learn from and with one another. They develop empathy and a sense of responsibility, and learn to deal with conflict. Values, beliefs and norms, passed on from parents to children, evolve in the course of everyday life. Thus parents exert an enormous influence on their children’s educational opportunities and overall life chances – as research in Germany and other countries has clearly shown.