European Commission, (2018), “Education and Training Monitor 2018: Greece” Education funding is low. Better monitoring of spending could help improve efficiency. Compulsory pre-primary education will be extended. Affordable childcare for under 3 year-olds remains scarce, resulting in declining participation and increased reliance on informal childminding. Citizenship education is well covered in general education but less present in vocational education. Tertiary educational attainment has increased further and is well above the …Read More
Who’s Afraid of Low Inflation?
Daniel Gros, (2019), “Who’s Afraid of Low Inflation?”, Project Syndicate, 9 April The fact that eurozone inflation is closer to 1% than 2% is not ideal, but the European Central Bank should not be overly concerned. The ECB does not need to pull out all the stops and invent ever more instruments in the forlorn hope of increasing inflation by a few tenths of a percentage point. Relevant Posts Adam …Read More
Why the ECB Won’t Loosen Its Policy Stance Further
Mohamed A. El-Erian, (2019), “Why the ECB Won’t Loosen Its Policy Stance Further”, Bloomberg Opinion, 10 April The European Central Bank, after sharply revising downward its baseline growth projections and seeing no decisive lifting of the downside risks, could be tempted to signal at its Governing Council meeting on Wednesday that it will pursue a further loosening of its monetary policy stance. That would be consistent with the bank’s record …Read More
EU Mobile Workers: A challenge to public finances?
Cinzia Aldixi and Daniel Gros, (2019), “EU Mobile Workers: A challenge to public finances?”, CEPS, Contribution for informal ECOFIN, Bucharest 5-6 April This contribution analyses recent trends in labour mobility within the EU and considers the challenges it generates in sending countries. It finds that mobile workers abroad can make a significant contribution to the GDP of their host countries and that the incomes of mobile citizens abroad can be …Read More
Immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe
Alberto Alesina, Elie Murard and Hillel Rpoport, (2019), “Immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe”, VoxEU, 8 April A large literature shows that generosity, both public and private, is more freely extended within the same group rather than across groups. This column examines how immigration affects natives’ attitudes towards redistribution and the implications for welfare states in Europe. The main finding is that in regions which have received a larger …Read More
‘Full and good employment’ and reviving the European ideal
Laura Pennacchi, 92019), “‘Full and good employment’ and reviving the European ideal”, Social Europe, 4 April Treating employment as a right to be guaranteed by the state, as postulated in many European constitutions, is radically different from the paternalistic alternative, focused on providing monetary benefits to those lacking work. Bringing the centre of gravity back to employment and rejecting the purported inevitability of the jobless society intrinsic to the spontaneous …Read More
Europe’s big election mess
David M. Herszenhorn and Maïa de La Baume, (2019), “Europe’s big election mess”, Politico, 4 April The Juncker Commission doesn’t end until Halloween, but the scary season for Europe’s political elite is already underway. Polls suggest May’s European Parliament election will deliver chaotic results, including unprecedented gains for far-right and populist parties that will force the major pro-EU groups to reach wider than ever to form a majority coalition. Relevant …Read More
An EU tax credit to preserve incentives for investment in human capital in the context of intra-EU migration
Debora Revoltella, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher and Patricia Wruuck, (2019), “An EU tax credit to preserve incentives for investment in human capital in the context of intra-EU migration”, VoxEU, 5 April Spending on education underpins the formation of human capital. But intra-EU labour mobility means that returns to such spending often accrue somewhere other than where the investment takes place, which can lead to sub-optimal levels of investment in countries that are …Read More
ECB Seen Paying Banks to Make Loans Amid Bleak Economic Outlook
Carolynn Look and Catarina Saraiva, (2019), “ECB Seen Paying Banks to Make Loans Amid Bleak Economic Outlook”, 5 April The European Central Bank will pay banks to lend as it tries to find ways to support economic growth that looks increasingly shaky, according to a survey. The cost of new long-term funding for banks which raise credit growth above a certain level will be lower than the main refinancing rate, …Read More
Quantitative easing and the ‘hot potato’ effect: Evidence from euro area banks
Ellen Ryan and Karl Whelan, (2019), “Quantitative easing and the ‘hot potato’ effect: Evidence from euro area banks”, VoxEU, 5 April The EU’s asset purchase programme saw its central banks’ reserve balances increase to unprecedent levels. This column analyses the response of banks in the euro area to this expansion in system-wide reserves, in particular whether they absorbed the excess liquidity or tried to push it off their balance sheets. …Read More