  We investigate electronic and optical properties of the V-based ladder
compounds NaV2O5, the iso-structural CaV2O5, as well as MgV2O5, which differs
from NaV2O5 and CaV2O5 in the c axis stacking. We calculate ab initio the A_g
phonon modes in these compounds as a basis for the investigation of the
electron-phonon and spin-phonon coupling. The phonon modes together with the
dielectric tensors as a function of the corresponding ion displacements are the
starting point for the calculation of the A_g Raman scattering.
