Gros, Daniel, Baldwin, Richard, (2015), “What caused the eurozone crisis?”, Ceps publications, 27 November After five years of crisis there are now signs that the eurozone economy is recovering, but it is far from being back to normal. The authors of this CEPS Commentary sound a note of caution: although progress has been made with the banking union and new institutions like the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), more needs to …Read More
Schuster, Joachim, (2015), “Old Wine In New Bottles: The Economic Priorities Of The European Commission In 2016”, Social Europe Journal, 4 December A new annual cycle of EU economic policy coordination – aka the European Semester – has begun with the European Commission’s (EC) latest Annual Growth Survey (AGS). The AGS sets out the EC’s views on the EU’s social and economic priorities and provides the building blocks for the …Read More
European Commission, (2015),”Tax reforms in EU Member States 2015-Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability”, Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) and Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), European Economy/Institutional Paper 008/September 2015, November. The report ‘Tax reforms in EU Member States’ serves four main purposes. Firstly, it reviews the most important tax reforms recently implemented in EU Member States. Secondly, it discusses a number …Read More
Merler, Silvia, (2015), ” Squaring the cycle: capital flows, financial cycles, and macro-prudential policy in the euro area”, Bruegel Publications, November. The financial crisis has prompted a renewed interest in macro-prudential policy as a framework to address the stability of the financial system as a whole, rather than only its individual components. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the European macro-prudential discussion by establishing empirically the special challenges that …Read More
Darvas, Zsolt, Leandro, Álvaro, (2015), “Naughty students or the wrong school: why is the European Semester proving ineffective?”, Bruegel Blog, 18 November. The fundamental problem of economic policy coordination in the EU is that national policymakers are accountable to their national parliaments and focus on national interests, which in many cases differ widely in different member states. It is therefore not all that surprising that economic policy coordination in the EU hardly …Read More
Decressin, Jörg, Espinoza, Raphael, Halikias, Ioannis, Leigh,Daniel, Loungani, Prakash, Medas, Paulo, Mursula, Susanna, Schindler, Martin, Spilimbergo, Antonio, Xu,TengTeng, (2015), “Wage Moderation in Crises-Policy Considerations and Applications to the Euro Area”, IMF, November. This paper discusses the short-run economic impact of wage moderation and the implications for policy in the context of the euro area crisis, with a focus on the roles of monetary policy and the zero lower bound (ZLB). It explores the channels …Read More
Dias, Daniel A., Wright, Mark L. J., (2015), “Alternative measures of government indebtedness”,Voxeu, 13 November. Measured as a percentage of its GDP, Greece’s debt is higher than that of Portugal and Ireland. This column discusses a range of new techniques for measuring the debts of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. It argues that plausible alternative measures of indebtedness suggest that Greece is anywhere from as much as 50% more indebted than Portugal and …Read More
Darvas, Zsolt, Leandro, Álvaro, (2015), “The limitations of policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester”, Bruegel Publications, Issue 19, 12 November. This paper assesses economic policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester. In sections 2 and 3, we make a positive (and not normative) assessment by taking Council recommendations made in the context of the European Semester as given and evaluating their implementation and consistency, without assessing …Read More
Gaspar, Vitor, Hagan, Sean, (2015), “Corruption : A Hidden Tax on Growth”, iMFdirect, 5 November. In recent years, citizens’ concerns about allegations of corruption in the public sector have become more visible and widespread. From São Paulo to Johannesburg, citizens have taken to the streets against graft. In countries like Chile, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Malaysia and Ukraine, they are sending a clear and loud message to their leaders: Address corruption! Relevant Posts Koulovatianos, Christos, Tsoukalas, …Read More
Aiyar, Shekhar, Ilyina, Anna, Jobst, Andreas, (2015), “How to tackle Europe’s non-performing loan problem”, Voxeu, 5 November. European banks are struggling with high levels of non-performing loans. This column explores the channels through which persistently high non-performing loans hold down credit growth and economic activity. A survey of EU authorities and banks reveals that the loans are not written-off for a variety of deep-seated reasons, including legal and tax code issues. An agenda is …Read More
