http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/1091 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:50:01 GMT 2026-03-11T19:50:01Z http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/8403 Title: Is youth unemployment more sensitive to business cycles than adult unemployment? Evidence from European countries Abstract: Youth and adult unemployment rates have sharply risen in almost all European countries since the 2008 economic and financial crisis, leading the European Commission to take initiatives to counter this rise. Despite the decrease of youth and adult unemployment rates since 2014, the European Union still faces unemployment challenges. This paper investigates the relationship between the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth and the unemployment rate (known as Okun's law) in 28 European countries between 2000 and 2017. By revisiting Okun's law, this paper first evaluates whether or not the youth unemployment rate is more sensitive to business cycles than the adult unemployment rate. Subsequently, it tests the hypothesis of a higher sensitivity of the men unemployment rate to business cycles compared to the women unemployment rate. First, in order to study the relationship between the unemployment rate and the real GDP growth, a non-linear functional form is used. Second, the econometric model includes factors that might influence the unemployment rate such as the labour force participation rate, the part-time employment rate, the share of temporary contract and the employment rate in industry. As a result, this empirical study highlights three main findings. First of all, the existence of a negative relationship between the unemployment rate and the real GDP growth for every age cohorts and gender groups is revealed in European countries. Then, the hypothesis that the adult men unemployment rate is more sensitive to business cycles than the adult women unemployment rate is confirmed. Finally, it has been found that the youth unemployment rate is not significantly more sensitive to business cycles than the adult unemployment rate. From a policy perspective, it can be inferred that an increase in the economic growth will decrease the unemployment rate of young people and adults. Moreover, it will result in a greater decline of the adult men unemployment rate than the adult women unemployment rate. Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/8403 2019-08-25T22:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/8105 Title: Infringement vs. commitments: An analysis of the European Commision's competition policy enforcement Abstract: This thesis analyzes the Commission's competition policy enforcement since the entry into force of Regulation 1/2003, introducing the commitments procedure. The analysis is carried out against the background that the optimal procedure choice depends on the uncertainty the Commission has related to the importance of the harm and the probability of conviction. With a representative sample of antitrust cases, it is attempted to determine which factors impacting the uncertainty and the probability of conviction have indeed a significant impact on the procedure choice. Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/8105 2019-08-25T22:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/7705 Title: Competition in the European Telecommunications Industry: 20 Years on from the Liberalisation. Abstract: What conclusions can be drawn regarding competition in the European telecommunications industry, twenty years after its liberalisation? This thesis measures and compares the levels of competition in this sector across the EU between 2010 and 2017 by calculating the profit elasticity indicator based on firm-level data from thousands of companies. We find that the intensity of competition in this industry is low comparted to the majority of the other European industries, that it declined in the majority of the EU countries during the studied period, and that it is extremely heterogeneous across countries, as the profit elasticity indicator ranged between -0.32 (very relaxed competition) in Germany and 2.51 (intense competition) in Ireland. Subsequently, we assess the impact on competition of two variables: (i) the number of mobile network operators active in a country and (ii) a binary variable taking on the value 1 if the European Commission prohibited any anticompetitive behaviour in a specific country’s telecommunications industry in previous years. Regardless of the econometric method employed, we find no evidence that either of these two variables has a statistically significant impact on the intensity of competition. Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/7705 2019-08-25T22:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/7483 Title: Analyse des facteurs déterminants les dépenses culturelles des communes wallonnes francophones Abstract: Le présent travail vise à analyser les facteurs qui influencent les décideurs locaux à octroyer une plus ou moins grande part de leur budget au développement de la vie culturelle locale. Pour ce faire, seront abordées tout d’abord les raisons pour lesquelles nous analysons les dépenses consacrées à la culture au niveau local ainsi que certains aspects théoriques nécessaires à notre analyse. Par ailleurs, l’intérêt de ce travail sera porté essentiellement sur les politiques culturelles des autorités locales wallonnes francophones. Ensuite, l’évolution des dépenses culturelles des communes de notre échantillon seront analysées sous différentes perspectives. Cette étude abordera également les différentes caractéristiques communales que nous avons identifiées en tant que potentiels déterminants des dépenses culturelles par habitant. Finalement, une analyse économétrique sur base de ces facteurs sera réalisée afin de tenter d’expliquer les dépenses culturelles ordinaires par habitant ainsi que les dépenses culturelles exprimées en part des dépenses ordinaires totales. Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/7483 2019-08-25T22:00:00Z