Valiante, Diego, (2016), “Europe’s Untapped Capital Market: Rethinking integration after the great financial crisis”, Final Report of the European Capital Markets Experts Group, Ceps, February In the aftermath of the great financial crisis, the lack of risk diversification in the European financial system, i.e. limited cross-border banking and capital markets activities, is the main cause of the fast retrenchment of capital flows within national boundaries. Europe needs private risk sharing …Read More
Unemployment: EMU Policymakers Focus On The Wrong Problem
Saraceno, Francesco, (2016), “Unemployment: EMU Policymakers Focus On The Wrong Problem”, Social Europe Journal, 9 February Last week François Hollande lifted the veil on the much-awaited measures for tackling French unemployment (3.6m/10.6%), defined as a “national emergency”. The plan made the news mostly for the pledge to soften the famous 35-hour working week, which nevertheless remains vague. Besides that, the plan consists of two legs: the first is an attempt …Read More
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Measuring competitiveness in Europe: resource allocation, granularity and trade
Altomonte, Carlo, Bekes, Gabor, (2016), “Measuring competitiveness in Europe: resource allocation, granularity and trade”, Brugel publications, 28 January One of the most important lessons learned during the 2008-09 financial crisis was that the informational toolbox on which policymakers base their decisions about competitiveness became outdated in terms of both data sources and data analysis. The toolbox is particularly outdated when it comes to tapping the potential of micro data for …Read More
Library » EU » Economy » Policy Papers
World trade, 1800-2015
Federico, Giovanni, Tena-Junguito, Antonio, (2016), “World trade, 1800-2015”, Voxeu, 7 February Parallels are often drawn between the Great Recession of the past decade and the economic turmoil of the interwar period. In terms of global trade, these comparisons are based on obsolete and incomplete data. This column re-estimates world trade since the beginning of the 19th century using a new database. The effect of the Great Recession on trade growth is sizeable but …Read More
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The Italian Bad Bank: A Better Alternative
Minenna, Marcelo, (2016), “The Italian Bad Bank: A Better Alternative”, Social Europe Journal, 8 February The severe financial crisis of recent years hit Eurozone industrial production; in a bank-centric currency area this resulted in tremendous growth of NPLs (non-performing loans), amounting today to €900 billion. In some countries, banking system issues arose from real estate bubbles and structured finance transactions Relevant Posts Merler, Sylvia, (2016), “Bad banks and rude awakenings: …Read More
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The Global Economy’s New Abnormal
Roubini, Nouriel, (2016), “The Global Economy’s New Abnormal”, Social Europe Journal, 5 February Since the beginning of the year, the world economy has faced a new bout of severe financial market volatility, marked by sharply falling prices for equities and other risky assets.A variety of factors are at work: concerns about a hard landing for the Chinese economy; worries that growth in the United States is faltering at a time …Read More
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Unemployment, internal devaluation and labour market deregulation in Europe
Myant, Martin, Theodoropoulou, Sotiria, Piasna, Agnieszka, (2016), “Unemployment, internal devaluation and labour market deregulation in Europe”, European Trade Union Institute, January Unemployment rates in the EU rose after the economic crisis of 2008, passing 10% in 2012, but with big variations between countries. The worst afflicted had been subject to so-called policies of internal devaluation, aimed at curing unemployment by reducing wage costs. This book provides a comparative study of countries that to varying degrees …Read More
Collective Bargaining And Rising Inequalities: Do The OECD And IMF Get It?
Janssen, Ronald, (2016), “Collective Bargaining And Rising Inequalities: Do The OECD And IMF Get It?”, Social Europe, 3 February. In a paper published in spring 2015, the IMF’s research department made the case for trade unions and collective bargaining as a powerful tool to keep inequalities in check. Whereas previous literature and statistics were already showing the existence of such a link, the IMF paper went even further by pointing out that …Read More
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On the Desirability of Capital Controls
Heathcote, Jonathan, Perri, Fabrizio, (2016), “On the Desirability of Capital Controls”, Centre for Economic Policy Research, January. In a standard two-country international macro model, we ask whether imposing restrictions on international non contingent borrowing and lending is ever desirable. The answer is yes. If one country imposes capital controls unilaterally, it can generate favorable changes in the dynamics of equilibrium interest rates and the terms of trade, and thereby benefit at the expense of …Read More
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Why Austerity And Structural Reforms Have Had Little To Do With Ireland’s Economic Recovery
Regan, Aidan, (2016), “Why Austerity And Structural Reforms Have Had Little To Do With Ireland’s Economic Recovery”, Social Europe, 3 February. Ireland was one of the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis, however it has emerged with a strong recovery and now boasts the fastest pace of economic growth of any country in the Euro area. But what explains the Irish recovery and could it act as a model for …Read More
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