The Chief Economist Team is responsible for the series’ publication, including the peer review of the papers.
1. Working papers
This collection encompasses evidence-based analytical working papers elaborated by this Commission department, at times in collaboration with others.
It also includes working papers that result from DG GROW’s Fellowship Programme, as well as conference papers (evidence-based analytical papers by external experts) selected for presentation at previous editions of DG GROW’s Single Market Research Conference, organised by the Chief Economist Team.
WP2025/48 - This study examines the diffusion of strategic technologies and their contribution to European competitiveness within a rapidly evolving global context.
WP2025/47 - This paper explores how Europe may achieve this goal through an analysis of the automotive sector as it transitions from internal combustion engines to battery electric, software-defined vehicles.
WP2025/46 - This paper investigates the determinants of cross-regional venture capital (VC) flows within Europe through a structural gravity model.
WP2025/45 - This paper assesses the SME debt financing gap in the EU by exploring financial market failures. The analysis finds a substantial financing gap despite strong public support by the EU and Member States.
WP2025/44 - This paper explores the intersection of product complexity, economic relatedness, and macroeconomic determinants to identify industrial opportunities across European Union (EU) Member States.
2. Economic briefs
This collection encompasses evidence-based analytical Economic Briefs by the Chief Economist Team, at times in collaboration with others. The Chief Economist Team is responsible for the series’ publication.
This section also includes Economic Briefs that result from DG GROW’s Fellowship Programme.
The analysis shows that firm-level uncertainty, measured using company earnings calls, closely follows well-known macroeconomic indicators while also offering deeper insights into how uncertainty affects businesses.
GROW Fellowship programme - This policy brief discusses the challenges of designing robust and resilient green industrial policies in today’s turbulent context.
GROW Fellowship programme - The aim of the analysis is to better understand how China’s position in LCTs (low-carbon technologies) has evolved over the past decades, taking into account the specifics between different technologies.
This brief provides a snapshot of rapid shifts and trends affecting EU industry, as well as some of the main challenges and opportunities shaping European industrial performance.
This economic brief provides a framework for addressing Europe’s challenge of industrial decline by repurposing idle manufacturing capacity towards defence products, for which there is growing demand.
GROW Fellowship programme - This paper examines the new industrial policy of the European Commission – the Clean Industrial Deal – based on a historical context of industrial policy development in the European Union and perspectives from sustainability transitions research.
Reflection paper - This paper provides a reflection on the EU’s industrial policy landscape, to highlight key issues and stimulate debate.
The EU gains resilience from being open and integrated in global value chains, but there are also associated risks likely to affect specific products and inputs that are particularly critical for the EU’s society and economy.
This brief presents a quantitative approach to help identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the EU’s manufacturing sectors across four dimensions: socio-economic importance, growth potential, dependencies and competitiveness.
The paper analyses six key manufacturing sectors, as well as construction, finding that all suffer from ‘strained health’ and/or face significant downside risks. It then analyses which European regions would suffer most from a protracted decline in terms of employment security.
This economic brief harnesses three high-quality business surveys to shed light on the significance of different obstacles to economic activity from the perspective of EU firms.
This brief introduces the EXternal Vulnerability Index (EXVI), a monitoring tool that uses trade data to identify and measure external vulnerabilities across various segments of the EU economy.
This economic brief takes a deep-dive into the European car industry, focusing on the drivers behind the decline of production in Germany, France and Italy.
This economic brief assesses shifting trends in recent China-EU FDI developments and related implications on EU exposure.
The paper looks at the effects of state aid on the green transition and the EU Single Market.
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. Drawing from the economic literature and descriptive analysis, the paper examines both anticipated benefits and realized outcomes.
Faced with several outstanding challenges and unresolved dilemmas, this brief analyses the future of EU industrial policy.
The energy-renewables ecosystem (ERES) plays a particularly important role in the green transition. This paper analyses its relevance in EU countries and its competitiveness for the EU27 as a whole vis-à-vis other global players.
This brief analyses how the European Green Deal adopted by the European Commission in December 2019 brought major opportunities to transform the EU’s single market for the net-zero age.
This study considers some challenges in the automobile industry of the EU taking into account its relatively historical privileged international position.
