European Central Bank (2014) Monthly Bulletin: September, ECB–Eurosystem, September. Based on its regular economic and monetary analyses, the Governing Council decided at its meeting on 4 September 2014 to lower the interest rate on the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem by 10 basis points to 0.05% and the rate on the marginal lending facility by 10 basis points to 0.30%. The rate on the deposit facility was lowered …Read More
European Commission (2014) European Competitiveness Report 2014, Commission Staff Working Document SWD(2014)6319 final, Σεπτέμβριος. The European Competitiveness Report, published annually since 1997, gives a quantitative assessment of the competitive performance of EU industries. It contributes to evidence-based policy-making by looking at knowledge gaps in industrial policy. Therefore it supports microeconomic decision-making at EU and national levels. The Report uses empirical research to examine EU competitiveness, working across the whole …Read More
Fuest, C., Heinemann, F. & Schröder, C. (2014) “A Viable Insolvency Procedure for Sovereigns (VIPS) in the Euro Area“, Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Discussion Paper No. 14, August. The euro area debt crisis has revealed serious flaws in the institutional setup of the European Monetary Union (EMU) as it had been designed in the late 1990s (Buti and Carnot, 2012; Hodson, 2013). Although the establishment of a …Read More
Mody, Α. & Riley, Ε. (2014) “Why does Italy not grow? – The Italian economy has barely grown since it joined the euro area in 1999“, Bruegel Institute, 09 September. In April this year, the Italian debt-to-GDP ratio was expected to peak by year-end at 135 percent of GDP. That projection assumed a real GDP growth rate of 0.6 percent and inflation of about 0.7 percent. The projected decline …Read More
Turner, Α. (2014) “Facing Reality in the Eurozone“, Project Syndicate, 08 September. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s recent speech at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has excited great interest, but the implication of his remarks is even more startling than many initially recognized. If a eurozone breakup is to be avoided, escaping from continued recession will require increased fiscal deficits financed with ECB …Read More
Korte, J. & Steffen, S. (2014) “A ‘sovereign subsidy’ – zero risk weights and sovereign risk spillovers“, VoxEU Organisation, 07 September. European banking regulation assigns a risk weight of zero to sovereign debt issued by EU member countries, making it an attractive investment for European banks. This column defines a ‘sovereign subsidy’ as a new measure quantifying to what extent banks are undercapitalised due to the zero risk weights. …Read More
OECD (2014) OECD Employment Outlook 2014, OECD Publishing. The 2014 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook reviews recent labour market trends and short-term prospects in OECD and key emerging economies. It zooms in on how the crisis has affected earnings, provides country comparisons of job quality, examines the causes and consequences of non-regular employment, and estimates the impact of qualifications and skills on labour market outcomes. How does GREECE …Read More
Schwab, K. (2014) “The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015“, World Economic Forum, 03 September. The Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 144 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.
Berti, Κ. & Carone, G. (2014) “Assessing Public Debt Sustainability in EU Member States: A Guide“, European Economy, Occasional Papers, 200. August 2014: Brussels. Analysing recent and prospective public debt developments and risks to debt sustainability is crucial for EA countries and the EU as a whole to be able to formulate appropriate policy responses. To this aim, the Commission services (Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs) conduct, …Read More
Bertarelli, S., Censolo, R. & Colombo, C. (2014) “Fiscal Convergence in the European Union before the Crisis“, Contemporary Economic Policy, Volume 32, Issue 4, pp. 784–801, October 2014. This article investigates fiscal convergence attained by EU countries in the period 1991–2008, by employing β- and σ-convergence techniques complemented by a time series analysis. Overall our results highlight a distinctive convergence pattern in the European Union. Fiscal discipline leading to …Read More
