Begg, Iain , (2017), “The Commission’s White Paper on the Future of Europe – a case of what might have been…”, EUROPP, 9 Μαρτίου Last week, the European Commission published its White Paper on the Future of Europe (WP), its attempt to set out the options for the development of the European Union. It explicitly rejects the narrow choice between more or less, offering instead a range of scenarios described as ‘neither mutually …Read More
How to re-employ the Spanish long-term unemployed
Bentolila, Samuel, Pérez, Jose Ignacio García , Jansen, Marcel , (2017), “How to re-employ the Spanish long-term unemployed”, Vox Eu, 9 Μαρτίου One of the most tangible legacies of the Great Recession is a surge in the incidence of long-term unemployment, especially in Spain. This is not a new problem – as the title of the 1995 CEPR report, Spanish Unemployment: Is There a Solution?, attests (Andres et al. 1995) – …Read More
The ECB’s ‘High-Class Problem’
Emons, Ben, (2017), “The ECB’s ‘High-Class Problem’”, BloombergView, 7 Μαρτίου The European Central Bank has been in a difficult position when it comes to addressing inflation with conventional policy. The main reason is that, during the debt crisis, the bank faced a trade-off between stabilizing European sovereign bonds, consumer inflation and lending. Financial stress from sovereign bonds spilled over into the real economy and left the ECB with residual deflation, high …Read More
Germany’s Misunderstood Trade Surplus
Fratzscher, Marcel, (2017), “Germany’s Misunderstood Trade Surplus”, Project Syndicate, 7 Μαρτίου Now that Germany’s current-account surplus has reached a record €270 billion ($285 billion), or close to 8.7% of GDP, the ongoing debate about its economic model has intensified. Eurozone politicians and Donald Trump’s administration in the United States are each blaming the other for the economic imbalance; and all are blaming the euro. Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις Merler, Sylvia, (2017), “Is …Read More
How the Euro Could Break Up—or Be Saved
Wishart, Ian, Rojanasakul, Mira, Fraher, John, (2017), “How the Euro Could Break Up—or Be Saved”, Bloomberg Politics, 7 Μαρτίου Talk about the breakup of the euro is fashionable again. With populists such as Marine Le Pen trying to storm the establishment and the popularity of the single currency in decline, executives and investors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, say nothing can be ruled out. At …Read More
Institutional investors and home bias in Europe’s Capital Markets Union
Darvas, Zsolt, Schoenmaker, Dirk , (2017), “Institutional investors and home bias in Europe’s Capital Markets Union”, Bruegel, Μάρτιος We highlight that existing indicators of equity home bias in the literature suffer from incomplete coverage because they consider only listed equities. We also consider unlisted equites and show that equity home bias is much higher than previous studies perceived. We also analyse home bias in debt securities holdings, and euro area …Read More
European identity and the economic crisis
Merler, Silvia, (2017), “European identity and the economic crisis”, Bruegel, 6 Μαρτίου Ferrera looks into what it means to be a European, and argues that integration proceeded so as to favour the emergence of a pan-European elite identity, while the inherited weight and inertia of national cultural frameworks prevented the emergence of a deeper sense of common citizenship across the EU. The ‘econo-cracy’ and austerity politics of the recent crisis years …Read More
Να αντισταθεί ο Ντράγκι στην πίεση των επικριτών της ποσοτικής χαλάρωσης
Καθημερινή, (2017), “Να αντισταθεί ο Ντράγκι στην πίεση των επικριτών της ποσοτικής χαλάρωσης”, 6 Μαρτίου Η οικονομία της ευρωζώνης αναπτύχθηκε κατά 1,7% το 2016. Ερευνες δείχνουν ότι η οικονομική δραστηριότητα βρίσκεται στο ισχυρότερο επίπεδο από το 2011, με τον ταχύτερο ρυθμό δημιουργίας θέσεων εργασίας εδώ και σχεδόν μια δεκαετία. Τα εταιρικά κέρδη αυξάνουν ταχύτερα απ’ ότι στις ΗΠΑ. Ο πληθωρισμός επέστρεψε, σκαρφαλώνοντας σε ετήσιο ρυθμό 2% το Φεβρουάριο. Η εντολή της …Read More
Assessing the effects of regulatory bank levies
Buch, Claudia, Tonzer, Lena, Weigert, Benjamin ,(2017), “Assessing the effects of regulatory bank levies”, Vox Eu, 6 Μαρτίου Banking crises cause large costs to the economy (Reinhart and Rogoff 2011, 2013). Advanced economies are not immune to these costs. Here, the output losses due to financial crises have, on average, been one third of GDP (Laeven and Valencia 2013).1 Across emerging and advanced economies, unemployment increased on average by seven percentage …Read More
Rewriting the Monetary-Policy Script
Heise, Michael, (2017), “Rewriting the Monetary-Policy Script”, Project Syndicate, 2 Μαρτίου The rule of thumb for monetary policymakers has long been that if inflation is below official target ranges, short-term interest rates should be set at a level that spurs spending and investment. This approach has meant that once interest rates reach or approach zero, central banks have little choice but to activate large asset-purchase programs that are supposed to stimulate …Read More