Smart, Christopher ,(2017), “The Financial Education of the Eurozone”, Project- Syndicate, 14 February Europe’s banks have long been central to the continent’s economy. In France and Germany, bank assets amount to 350-400% of GDP, whereas in the United States, they are equal to just over 100% of GDP. After the 2008 financial crisis, the eurozone’s weakest banks quickly buckled under the weight of their bad loans, and then threatened to …Read More

Janssen, Ronald, (2017, “The Rise Of The “Super Firms” And Inequality”, Social Europe, 9 February Mainstream economic thinking often tries to explain the trend of high and rising inequalities by referring to the forces of technology. Technological progress, so the argument goes, works to destroy middle pay routine jobs while at the same time creating many high skilled jobs. There is, however, increasing recognition that this ‘technology’ factor is but part …Read More

Marrero, Gustavo A., Rodriguez, Juan Gabriel, Van der Weide, Roy, (2017), “Unequal opportunities, unequal growth”, VoxEu, 8 February Inequality can be both good and bad for growth. Unequal societies may be holding back one segment of the population while helping another. This column exploits US data to argue that inequality affects negatively the future income growth of the poor and positively that of the rich. This relationship is largely driven by …Read More

Merler, Sylvia, (2017), “Is Germany a currency manipulator?”, Bruegel, 6 February Paul Krugman argues that Navarro is right and wrong at the same time. Germany in effect has an undervalued currency relative to what it would have without the euro, against its neighbors. This is the result of a large real depreciation during the euro’s good years, which has only been partly reversed, because wages are downward sticky, and Germany …Read More

Aussilloux, Vincent, Benassy-Quere, Agnes, Fuest, Clemens, Wolff, Guntram B., (2017), “Making the best of the European single market”, Bruegel, 2 February Now more than ever, the EU needs to address concerns about the significant decline in productivity growth and the increasing perception of unfairness. Completing the single market would unlock the EU’s growth potential. At the same time, the EU should empower member states to fight inequality by helping them better …Read More

Reinhart, Carmen, (2017), “Is the Deflation Cycle Over?”, Project Syndicate, 31 January Until the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, deflation had all but disappeared as a concern for policymakers and investors in the advanced economies, apart from Japan, which has been subject to persistent downward pressure on prices for nearly a generation. And now deflationary fears are on the wane again. By the mid-1960s, the advanced economies began an era …Read More

Merler, Silvia, (2017), “The economic effects of migration”, Bruegel, 16 January What’s at stake: migration is currently a very hot topic in both the US and the EU. Immigration issues have come to the forefront due to the problem of rapidly ageing populations, the refugee crisis, and growing anti-immigration political rhetoric. But what do we know about the economic effects of migration? Relevant Posts Bertoncini, Yves, De Geus, Aart, Niblett, Robin, Styczynska, Izabela, Gastaldo, Piero, …Read More

Blanke, Jennifer, Krogstrup, Signe, (2016), “Negative interest rates: absolutely everything you need to know”, World Economic Forum, 2 November Since the great recession, a large number of advanced economies have been stuck with low growth and low levels of investment and inflation. Attempting to regain growth, central banks have taken increasingly forceful monetary measures. Of these, perhaps the most controversial and least understood is negative interest rates. The central bank of …Read More

Subacchi, Paola, (2017), “Economic Crises and the Crisis of Economics”, Project Syndicate, 13 January Is the economics profession “in crisis”? Many policymakers, such as Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, believe that it is. Indeed, a decade ago, economists failed to see a massive storm on the horizon, until it culminated in the most destructive global financial crisis in nearly 80 years. More recently, they misjudged the immediate …Read More

Blanchard, Olivier, (2017), “The Need for Different Classes of Macroeconomic Models”, PIIE, 12 January Theory models, aimed at clarifying theoretical issues within a general equilibrium setting. Models in this class should build on a core analytical frame and have a tight theoretical structure. They should be used to think, for example, about the effects of higher required capital ratios for banks, or the effects of public debt management, or the effects …Read More