Demertzis, Maria, Viegi, Nicola, (2016), “Credibility of central bank(er)s”, VoxEU, 28 Ιουνίου Both the Fed and the ECB have managed to remain credible since the Global Crisis, but their credibility levels have evolved differently. This column argues that since inflation in the US and the Eurozone has been similar in the past eight years, the difference in the way that credibility has evolved is the result of the different macroeconomic policy …Read More

Grevi, Giovanni, (2016), “Europe: a question of survival”, European Policy Centre, 27 Ιουνίου The choice of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU) poses a fundamental question that can no longer be avoided – that of the survival of European integration. Chancellor Merkel rightly defined Brexit as a “watershed” moment for Europe. She omitted, however, that beyond this turning point lies the crossroads between a spiral of political and …Read More

Battaglini, Marco, Nunnari, Salvatore, Palfrey, Thomas R, (2016), “The Political Economy of Public Debt: A Laboratory Study”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Ιούνιος This paper reports the results from a laboratory experiment designed to study political distortions in the accumulation of public debt. A legislature bargains over the levels of a public good and of district specific transfers in two periods. The legislature can issue or purchase risk-free bonds in the first period and …Read More

Olivier, Blanchard, (2016), “How the Eurozone Can Be Strengthened After Brexit”, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 27 Ιουνίου exit raises fundamental questions, about the course of history, the nature of relations between European countries, the rise of populists, and the devalued status of politicians. These will be analyzed at length for months and years to come. Meanwhile, Europe must continue to function. Both the European Union and eurozone projects have to …Read More

Wolff, Guntram, (2016), “Six lessons about “real” people, Brexit, and the EU”, Bruegel, 27 Ιουνίου The result of the UK referendum on 23 June has been portrayed as a victory for “real people”. But what consequences will the result have, and how should the UK and EU now react?  “…this will be a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people.” These are the words …Read More

Csullag, Balazs, Danielsson, Jon, Macrae, Robert, (2016), “Why it doesn’t make sense to hold bonds”, VoxEU, 27 Ιουνίου Investor demand for bonds is very high. This column argues that this is surprising because under almost any likely inflation scenario, including central banks merely hitting their target inflation rates, bondholders suffer large losses. The beneficiaries are sovereign and corporate borrowers; the losers are pension funds, insurance companies and some foreign exchange reserve funds. Meanwhile, …Read More

Tyson, Laura, Labaye, Eric, (2016), “Jumpstarting Europe’s Economy”, Project Syndicate, 25 Ιουνίου Not so long ago, the notion of the European Central Bank handing out money to governments or directly to citizens – so-called “helicopter money” drops – would have seemed outlandish. But today a surprising number of mainstream economists and centrist politicians are endorsing the idea of monetary financing of stimulus measures in different forms.This represents a much-needed change …Read More