Merler, Sylvia, (2016), “A financial side to a macroeconomic story: macro imbalances and financial integration in the euro area”, Bruegel publications, 18 Ιανουαρίου In a recent paper, I looked at the evolution of financial cycles in the euro area and at their link with capital flows. Here, I focus on how those findings inform our understanding of euro-area macroeconomic imbalances, revisiting the analysis of national savings and investment correlation. Σχετικές …Read More
Lost in assumptions: assessing the economic impact of migrants
Boot, Nuria, Huttl, Pia, (2016), “Lost in assumptions: assessing the economic impact of migrants”, Bruegel publications, 18 Ιανουαρίου What’s at stake: Many research institutes have estimated the economic impact of migrants, in particular regarding fiscal budgets and the labour market. These studies often give contradictory results. This blogs review looks at the different assumptions and approaches behind these results. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Carcea Carpus, Mihaela, Ciriaci, Daria, Lorenzani, Dimitri, Pontuch, Peter, …Read More
The economic value of personal data for online platforms, firms and consumers
Liem, Cassandra, Petropoulos, Georgios, (2016), “The economic value of personal data for online platforms, firms and consumers”, 14 Ιανουαρίου Data is often referred to as the ‘oil of the twenty-first century’. This article reviews how personal data generate economic value for the three major parties of the digital market: online platforms (such as search engines, social networking sites, online videos, content sites) and their clients, companies and consumers. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις …Read More
Five things we need to know about the on-demand economy
Maselli, Ilaria, Lenaerts, Karolien, Beblavý, Miroslav, (2016), “Five things we need to know about the on-demand economy”, Ceps publications, 8 Ιανουαρίου The last few years have witnessed the exponential growth of platforms like Uber and Airbnb and the creation of countless other less well-known examples. The expansion of the on-demand economy puts huge pressure on regulators to adapt it to the existing frameworks for labour and taxation. The rapid growth of the sector also divides …Read More
Cost-benefit analysis of ‘leaning against the wind’: Are costs larger also with less effective macroprudential policy?
Svensson, Lars E.O., (2016), “Cost-benefit analysis of ‘leaning against the wind’: Are costs larger also with less effective macroprudential policy?”, Voxeu, 12 Ιανουαρίου. The monetary policy of ‘leaning against the wind’ involves a higher policy interest rate. It is usually justified as reducing the probability and severity of a future crisis. This column argues that the costs of the policy exceed the benefits by a substantial margin, especially when taking into …Read More
Has ECB QE lifted inflation?
Darvas, Zsolt, (2016), “Has ECB QE lifted inflation?”, Bruegel Blog, 13 Ιανουαρίου. Euro-area headline inflation has remained close to zero since the ECB stepped up its quantitative easing programmes in early 2015, but this does not mean that QE has been ineffective: core inflation and its adjusted version for the indirect effects of low oil prices have steadily increased throughout 2015. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Constâncio, Vítor, Hartmann, Philipp, Tristani, Oreste, (2015), “Selected Takeaways from the …Read More
Beyond competitive devaluations: The monetary dimensions of comparative advantage
Bergin, Paul , Corsetti, Giancarlo, (2016), “Beyond competitive devaluations: The monetary dimensions of comparative advantage”, Voxeu, 11 Ιανουαρίου Competitive devaluation is a long-standing idea in international macroeconomic theory. This column takes a step back from the current debate and assesses a different perspective on monetary and exchange rate policies. Strategic behaviour is shown to be detrimental from a global welfare perspective. Due to negative spillovers elsewhere, devaluations invite retaliation – which …Read More
A more perfect, but also smaller union?
Gros, Daniel, (2016), “A more perfect, but also smaller union?”, Ceps, 11 Ιανουαρίου The Great Financial Crisis showed that Europe’s monetary union was very imperfect. It took the ‘near-death’ experience of the euro crisis of 2010-12 to force Europe’s leaders to act. The response was then to create a large fund to help states in difficulty (the €700 billion European Stability Mechanism, or ESM) and the (imperfect) banking union, with …Read More
Labour market policy: Parts of the picture are missing
Arni, Patrick, Lalive, Rafael, van den Berg, Gerard, (2016), “Labour market policy: Parts of the picture are missing”, Voxeu, 11 Ιανουαρίου The standard empirical evaluations of labour market policy only consider the direct effects of single programmes on their participants. This column argues that this fails to capture important aspects of real-world labour market policy – policy regimes and strategies. Using Swiss data, it employs a novel empirical approach that concurrently examines the effects of …Read More
Public investment efficiency and growth
Berg, Andrew, Presbitero, Andrea, Felipe Zanna, Luis, (2016), “Public investment efficiency and growth”, Voxeu, 5 Ιανουαρίου What is the growth impact of an increase in the rate of public investment spending? And in particular, how does this depend on the efficiency of public investment spending? These questions have emerged in the debate about the need to bolster public investment to exit a low-growth, high-unemployment conundrum in Europe (e.g. Summers 2014, Teulings and Baldwin 2014, …Read More