Clayes, Gregory, Efstathiou, Konstantinos, (2017), “Is the recent increase in long-term interest rates a threat to euro-area recovery?”, Bruegel, 29 Μαΐου After reaching historically low levels in the first half of 2016, European long-term sovereign yields experienced a notable increase in the second half of 2016 and at the beginning of 2017, before stabilising in the last few months. The nominal long-term interest rate can be decomposed into the following components: …Read More

Beck, Thorsten, Samuel Da-Rocha-Lopes, Samuel, Silva, Andre, (2017), “Bank bail-in: The effects on credit supply and real economy”, VoxEU, 26 Μαΐου The new resolution and bail-in regime in Europe hypothetically lets banks fail without resorting to public funding. This column examines the effects of the bail-in of the Portuguese Banco Espírito Santo. Existing borrowers from the banks exposed to the bail-in experienced a negative impact on their credit supply from …Read More

Cecchetti, Stephen, Schoenholtz, Kim, (2017), “Bank resolution: The importance of a public backstop”, Vox Eu, 28 Μαΐου 2017 The failure of Lehman on 15 September 2008, signalled the most intense phase of the Global Crisis of 2007-2009, fuelling a run on a broad array of intermediaries. Following Congress’ approval of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding that was used mostly to recapitalise US financial firms, the mantra of US regulators became …Read More

Moury, Catherine, Standring, Adam, (2017), “How Portugal’s leaders exploited the bail out to pass measures they already supported”, EUROPP, Μάιος We recently conducted both an analysis of official statements and interviews with many of the main political actors that were in power during the sovereign debt crisis in Portugal (2010-2015). Our research highlights that both the crisis and the bailout made the executive stronger in relation to other domestic actors. Consequently, when …Read More

Douglas, Roger, MacCulloch, Robert, (2017), “Welfare: Savings not taxation”, Vox Eu, 25 Μαΐου Across many countries, the cost of publicly funded healthcare, retirement, and other welfare programmes are forecast to put rising pressure on government budgets. As a result, many nations are seeking to reform their welfare states so that costs to the government can be reduced, quality of outcomes increased, and the plight of low- and middle-income earners improved. Regrettably …Read More

Brosens, Teunis, (2017), “Financial integration in the Eurozone should not be a tough sell”, Vox Eu, 24 Μαΐου Much progress has been made in recent years to improve the financial integration of the Eurozone. Banking union is the most important example. Increasing stability is an important objective. But let us not forget that an integrated financial market also helps European consumers and companies in a more direct way. A fully equipped …Read More