Chari, Α. & Blair Henry, Ρ. (2015) “Austerity and recovery: East Asian lessons for Europe“, VoxEU Organisation, 06 March. In the wake of the Great Recession, a contentious debate has erupted over whether austerity is helpful or harmful for economic growth. This column compares the experiences of the East Asian countries – whose leaders responded to the East Asian financial crisis with expansionary fiscal policy – with those of …Read More
Danisewicz, Ρ., Reinhardt, D. & Sowerbutts, R. (2015) “Macroprudential spillovers: The role of organisational structure“, VoxEU Organisation, 05 March. In a global financial system, macroprudential policies may create international spillovers. This column presents new evidence on how the organisational structure of a bank affects the magnitude of these spillovers. An increase in capital requirements at home causes foreign branches to reduce their lending growth to other banks operating in …Read More
Lebon, Ι. & Rebière, Τ. (2015) “How Many Educated Workers for Your Economy? European Targets, Optimal Public Spending, and Labor Market Impact“, IZA DP No. 8854, February. This paper studies optimal taxation schemes for education in a search-matching model where the labor market is divided between a high-skill and a low-skill sector. Two public policy targets –maximizing the global employment level and optimizing the social surplus– are studied according …Read More
Ha-Joon Chang (2015) “What does it really mean to be ‘pro-business’?“, The Guardian, 03 March. Despite the best efforts of some of its members to discredit it with market rigging, tax avoidance, and unjustified bonuses, the business community is still held in awe in Britain. Any suggestion of higher taxes for top earners or tougher regulations on the abuse of market power is howled down as dangerously anti-business. Politicians …Read More
Jakab, Ζ., Lukyantsau, Ρ. & Wang, S. (2015) “A Global Projection Model for Euro Area Large Economies“, IMF Publications, Working Paper No. 15/50 The GPM project is designed to improve the toolkit for studying both own-country and cross-country linkages. This paper creates a special version of GPM that includes the four largest Euro Area (EA) countries. The EA countries are more vulnerable to domestic and external demand shocks because …Read More
De Groen, P. W. (2015) “Corporate Taxation in Europe: Let’s get it together!“, Financial Markets, CEPS Commentaries, 16 February More comprehensive cooperation in corporate taxation at European level could significantly advance the region’s socio-economic prosperity, but its potential contribution is unfortunately overlooked in the current search for growth and job creation. Lucrative tax niches established in some member states and the fear of losing fiscal autonomy prevent several countries from …Read More
Auerbach, J. A. & Hassett, K. (2015) “Capital taxation in the 21st century“, VoxEU Organisation, 03 March. Piketty’s justification for his proposed wealth tax relies on the notion that the rate of return on capital exceeds economic growth. This column challenges this basis, arguing that it fails to account for risk. The authors also examine the relative merits of a consumption tax, which may be more valid. In Capital …Read More
Rodríguez-Pose, Α., Psycharis, Υ. & Tselios, V. (2015) “Politics and investment: Examining the territorial allocation of public investment in Greece“, VoxEU Organisation, 03 March. Electoral results and the geographical allocation of public investment in Greece have been intimately related. This column describes how incumbent Greek governments between 1975 and 2009 tended to reward those constituencies returning them to office. Increases in both the absolute and relative electoral returns for …Read More
Görlach, Α. (2015) “The critical junction – Unless Germany charts a new business course, it will lose out to the rest of the world economy“, The European Magazine, 02 March. Sigmar Gabriel lives in the 19th century. For the German Minister for Economic Affairs, the list of what matters isn’t long: industry, German cars and so forth. Digital innovation? New business models? Not for him. He is, rather, stirring …Read More
Justiniano, A., Primiceri, G. & Tambalotti, A. (2015) “Credit supply and the housing boom“, VoxEU Organisation, 27 February. There is no consensus among economists on the forces that drove the historical rise of US house prices and household debt that preceded the Global Crisis. In this column, the authors argue that the fundamental factor behind that boom was an increase in the supply of mortgage credit. This rise was …Read More
