Auer, R. (2014) “The increasing competiveness of the southern Eurozone“, VoxEU Organisation, 11 April.   Some view the improvements in current accounts for Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain as short-lived – the result of a temporary compression of import demand that is likely to be reversed as the recession eases. This column argues the contrary, based on the fact that their improving trade balances reflect better export performance. This development …Read More

Noss, J. & Toffano, P. (2014) “Estimating the impact of changes in aggregate bank capital requirements during an upswing“, VoxEU Organisations, 06 April.   The impact of tighter regulatory capital requirements during an economic upswing is a key question in macroprudential policy. This column discusses research suggesting that an increase of 15 basis points in aggregate capital ratios of banks operating in the UK is associated with a median reduction …Read More

Campos, F. N., Coricelli, F. & Moretti, L. (2014) “The eye, the needle and the camel: Rich countries can benefit from EU membership“, VoxEU Organisation, 05 April.   One concern with EU enlargement is that relatively poorer countries benefit more from becoming members. This column uses data from the 1973 and 1995 enlargements to show that richer countries also benefited a lot from joining the EU. Per capita incomes would …Read More

Mabbett, D. & Schelkle, W. (2014) “The lack of monetary sovereignty is not the reason Eurozone countries struggled during the crisis“, LSE EUROPP, 04 April.   One of the most widespread arguments about the Eurozone crisis is that countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy have been hamstrung by their lack of monetary sovereignty and the ability to devalue their own currency. Deborah Mabbett and Waltraud Schelkle assess this perspective …Read More