European Commission, (2014), “EU Anti-Corruption Report”, COM (2014) 38 final. Corruption continues to be a big challenge for Europe – a phenomenon that costs the EU economy around 120 billion euros per year. Europeans are deeply worried about corruption – 76% of them believe that corruption is widespread according to a recent Eurobarometer survey.
Eurofound, (2014), “Third European Quality of Life Survey – Quality of life in Europe: Trends 2003–2012”, 27 Ιανουαρίου. This report compares the results from the three waves to provide evidence of trends and change in the quality of life of Europeans over a decade. It also examines whether differences across EU Member States have narrowed or remained stable. One of its findings is that subjective well-being has remained stable across …Read More
Marx, P., (2014), “Labour market risks and political preferences: The case of temporary employment”, European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 53, Issue 1, pp.136-159. The political economy literature has gathered compelling evidence that labour market risks shape political preferences. Accordingly, insecurity fuels support for redistribution and left parties. This article analyses this argument for temporary workers, a so far neglected risk category which has increased dramatically in the past two …Read More
Pisani-Ferry, J., (2014), “Cut the Spending, Spare the Poor”, www.project-syndicate.org, 30 Ιανουαρίου. Why do some governments spend more than others? The question is more complicated than it appears, especially in the case of European governments. The answer may look obvious when comparing, say, Denmark (where public spending, excluding interest payments on debt, amounted to 58% of GDP in 2012) and the United States (where the same number was 35%). Extensive …Read More
Hardouvelis, Gikas (2014), “Overcoming the crisis in Cyprus”, Economy & Markets, Vol. IX, Issue 1. Following the March 2013 bail-in of large bank depositors and the subsequent crisis, Cyprus faces major challenges and risks during 2014 and 2015. The first challenge is to ensure financial stability and lift all capital control restrictions. Another challenge is to move fast with structural reforms, gain credibility in fiscal policy and ensure the recession ends …Read More
Merter, S. (2014), “Banking Union and Beyond: Discussion papers for Brussels Think Tank Dialogue”, Bruegel, 28 Ιανουαρίου. Three years have passed since the euro crisis broke out in 2010, revealing the shortcomings of the EMU architecture as it was foreseen in Maastricht. A number of reforms have been undertaken since 2010 in order to strengthen the Monetary Union, make it more adept to face the challenges of the financial integration …Read More
Pâris, P. and Wyplosz, Ch., (2014) “PADRE: Politically Acceptable Debt Restructuring in the Eurozone”, 28 Ιανουαρίου. The average public debt level of Eurozone countries now stands at 95.5% of GDP, and it is much higher in a number of countries. There is a lively debate about whether public debts can be too big and, if so, what the threshold is. At the very least, large public indebtedness is unhelpful, and …Read More
Lagarde, Ch.,(2014), “Jobs and Growth: Supporting the European Recovery”, iMF Direct, 28 Ιανουαρίου. As we begin the new year, Europe confronts both good and bad news. First the good news. Growth is finally picking up in the euro area as it is slowly emerging from the deep recession. The bad news? Still nearly 20 million people are unemployed. Until the effects on employment have been reversed, we cannot say that …Read More
Blanchard, Ο., (2014), “Is the world recovery really strengthening?”, 27 Ιανουαρίου 2014. The global economy seems to be on the mend. In this column, IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard provides a quick overview of the likely developments. The key points are that the recovery is happening as expected, but it remains fragile and uneven across major economies. Normalising monetary policy poses risks for vulnerable emerging markets and deflation is a …Read More
Reichlin, L. and Garican, L., (2014), “Squaring the Eurozone’s Vicious Circle”, Project Syndicate, 27 Ιανουαρίου. The eurozone is caught in a diabolical loop, in which weak banking systems harm their sovereigns’ fiscal positions, which in turn compromise the banking system’s stability. But, over the last couple of years, policymakers have focused largely on reducing banks’ impact on their sovereigns – for example, through a Europe-wide supervisory authority and efforts to …Read More
