STRATFOR (2014) “Europe: Building a Banking Union“, Europe’s Economic Crisis Timeline, 30 Οκτωβρίου. Summary The recent stress tests by the European Central Bank offered few surprises and did not cause any significant political or financial reactions in the Continent. However, these tests were only the beginning of a complex process to build a banking union in the European Union. Unlike the stress tests, the next steps in this project …Read More
Are the Eurozone’s fiscal rules dying? – if so: good riddance
Mody, A. (2014) “Are the Eurozone’s fiscal rules dying? – if so: good riddance“, Bruegel Institute, 28 Οκτωβρίου. The European Commission and European Council have blinked. Reprimanding France and Italy for their transgressions of the fiscal rules was too risky. With face-saving measures, France and Italy will now break the eurozone’s prized fiscal rules. While unseemly in the eurozone context, this is a good economic outcome. Forcing deeper austerity …Read More
The role of corporate governance in strengthening banks
Jassaud, Ν. (2014) “The role of corporate governance in strengthening banks“, VoxEU Organisation, 30 Οκτωβρίου. Sound corporate governance is essential for a well-functioning banking system and the integrity of financial markets. This column discusses the corporate governance of Italian banks, its regulatory framework, and the specific challenges arising from the role played by foundations and large cooperatives. Although Italian banks have recently made progress in improving their corporate governance, …Read More
Why France Needs Political Reform
Funk Kirkegaard, J. (2014) “Why France Needs Political Reform“, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 29 Οκτωβρίου. Despite recent unflattering jokes, France is not an economic basket case. Blessed with numerous competitive high value-added industries, France is also visited by more foreign tourists than any other country in the world. It has also performed far better than the euro area periphery and the islands off the coast of the Continent …Read More
Making sense of the comprehensive assessment
Acharya, V. & Steffen, S. (2014) “Making sense of the comprehensive assessment“, VoxEU Organisation, 29 Οκτωβρίου. The ECB conducted a comprehensive assessment of banks and identified capital shortfalls for 25 banks, totalling €25 billion. In this column, the authors provide a number of benchmark stress tests to estimate capital shortfalls. The analyses suggest possible capital shortfalls between €80 billion and more than €700 billion depending on the model. They …Read More
Income and Wealth Distribution in Germany: A Macroeconomic Perspective
Van Treeck, Τ. (2014) “Income and Wealth Distribution in Germany: A Macroeconomic Perspective“, The Institute Blog, 29 Οκτωβρίου. Household economic surveys, such as the German Socio-Economic Panel, notoriously underestimate the degree of income and wealth inequality at the upper end of the distribution. To combat this, a new approach developed by Thomas Piketty and co-authors analyzes tax return data in an attempt at better measuring top incomes and wealth. …Read More
Why Keynes is Important Today
Temin, P. & Vines, D. (2014) “Why Keynes is Important Today“, Institute for New Economic Thinking, 28 Οκτωβρίου. Macroeconomists have been notably unhelpful in explaining and recommending policies since the global financial crisis of 2008. How could this have happened? Since John Maynard Keynes created macroeconomics in the 1930s, the field has grown to be half of all introductory courses in economics and has become well represented and respected …Read More
Lower levels of clientelism in Portuguese politics explain why Portugal handled austerity better than Greece during the crisis
Afonso, A., Zartaloudis, S. & Papadopoulos, Y. (2014) “Lower levels of clientelism in Portuguese politics explain why Portugal handled austerity better than Greece during the crisis“, LSE EUROPP, 27 Οκτωβρίου. Greece and Portugal were two of the worst hit countries by the Eurozone crisis, yet the domestic political reaction within each state was notably different. While in Greece there were difficulties agreeing to austerity policies and the party system …Read More
A 100-year perspective on sovereign debt composition in 13 advanced economies
Ali Abbas, S. M., Blattner, L., De Broeck, M., El-Ganainy, A. & Hu, M. (2014) “A 100-year perspective on sovereign debt composition in 13 advanced economies“, VoxEU Organisation, 27 Οκτωβρίου. There has been renewed interest in sovereign debt since the Global Crisis, but relatively little attention has been paid to its composition. Sovereign debt can differ in terms of the currency it is denominated in, its maturity, its marketability, …Read More
Inclusive Growth: What Future for the European Social Model?
Schmid, G. (2014) “Inclusive Growth: What Future for the European Social Model?“, IZA Policy Paper No. 82, Μάιος 2014. This essay starts, after a short introduction on the importance and dimensions of “inclusive growth”, with a brief empirical sketch on to what extent Europe has already succeeded with respect to this ambitious goal. The result is quite sobering and gives rise to the question: why is it so? The …Read More