Shafik, N., (2013), “Europe’s Choice: Risk Stagnation or Pursue Integration”, iMFdirect Blog, 11 October. Europe faces a stark choice: risk stagnation or pursue integration. It can continue to muddle through, and hope that growth in the world economy will eventually pick up enough steam to pull its economy out of the doldrums. Or it can make a decisive push to revitalize its economy and complete the reforms needed to achieve …Read More
Steen, M., (2013), “Eurozone fails to cheer recovery”, The Financial Times, 10 October. Why is no one cheering? Technically, the eurozone exited its 18-month recession in the second quarter and is back on the path to growth. Yet its supporters – and critics – have remained silent. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, may have the answer. “I see a recovery that is weak, that is uneven, that …Read More
OECD, (2013), OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First results from the survey of adult skills, Paris: OECD. Key Findings of the Survey Progress across generations Some countries have made impressive progress over recent decades in equipping more people with better literacy and numeracy skills. Young Koreans, for example, are outperformed only by their Japanese peers, while Korea’s 55 to 64 year-olds are among the three lowest-performing groups of this age. Older …Read More
Lang, C., Schömann, I. and Clauwaert, S., (2013), “Atypical forms of employment contracts in times of crisis”, European Trade Union Institute, Working Paper 2013.03. This working paper builds on previous research undertaken by the ETUI on the impact of the economic and financial crisis on labour law reforms in EU Member States. It maps the landscape and evolutions in the regulation of atypical employment contracts, analysing how some of these …Read More
Gros, D., (2013), “The Myth of German Euroskepticism”, Project Syndicate, 09 October. For example, a recent briefing note by Open Europe claims that German citizens tend to trust the European Parliament less than their national parliament and detects a trend of declining German trust in EU institutions since the start of the crisis. Similarly, a commentary by the European Council on Foreign Relations states: “Trust in the EU has plummeted …Read More
IMF, (2013), World Economic Outlook, Washington DC : International Monetary Global economic prospects have improved again, but the bumpy recovery and skewed macroeconomic policy mix in advanced economies are complicating policymaking in emerging market economies. Chapter 3 examines the prospects for inflation, particularly because inflation was remarkably stable in the wake of the Great Recession and, in fact, has become less responsive to cyclical conditions. Chapter 4 examines whether today’s …Read More
Buti, M. and Padoan, P.C., (2013), “How to make Europe’s incipient recovery durable – A rejoinder”, VoxEU, 08 October. Our recent Vox column triggered an interesting and lively debate (see for instance Krugman, 2013; Fatas, 2013; Watt, 2013). In it, we argued that weak private investment is partly to blame for the growth shortfall of the Eurozone compared to the US in the past few years and that putting in …Read More
Soros, G., (2013), “Angela Merkel’s Pyrrhic Victory”, Project Syndicate, 07 October. As far as Germany is concerned, the drama of the euro crisis is over. The subject was barely discussed in the country’s recent election campaign. Chancellor Angela Merkel did what was necessary to ensure the euro’s survival, and she did so at the least possible cost to Germany – a feat that earned her the support of pro-European Germans …Read More
Mercille, J., (2013), “European Media Distort the Lessons of Argentina’s Crisis and Recovery”, Social Europe Journal, 07 October. The European media have distorted the lessons of Argentina’s relatively successful response to its own economic crisis a decade ago, as newly published research documents in detail. This is not surprising, because the policies adopted by Buenos Aires were directly opposed to those currently favoured by European authorities, in particular the ECB …Read More
Degryse, C., Jepsen, M. and Pochet, P., (2013), “The Euro crisis and its impact on national and European social policies”, European Trade Union Institute, Working Paper 2013.05, October. This critical working paper looks at the series of political choices, circumstances and windows of opportunity that have enabled one particular vision of the model of EU monetary union to gain acceptance. In the context of this model, political union is not …Read More
