Pâris, P., Wyplosz, Ch., (2013), “To end the Eurozone crisis, bury the debt forever”, www.voxeu.org, 6 August. The Eurozone’s debt crisis is getting worse despite appearances to the contrary. How can we end it? This column presents five major options for reducing crisis countries’ debt. Looking into the details, it seems the only option that is both realistic and effective is for countries to default by selling monetised debt to the …Read More
Eichengreen, B., (2013), “The ECB Grows Up”, www.project-syndicate.org, 9 August. August 2 marked the first anniversary of the European Central Bank’s “outright monetary transactions” program, under which it stands ready to purchase government bonds on the secondary market. The ECB announced OMT in response to last summer’s panicked sales of southern European sovereign debt, which threatened to blow apart the eurozone.
Princen, S., Mourre, G., (2013), “The role of tax policy in times of fiscal consolidation”, European Economy, Economic Papers N.502. The paper consists in the proceedings of the workshop organised by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs held in Brussels on 18 October 2012. Against the background of severe consolidation needs in many EU Member States, the workshop addressed the macroeconomic impact and redistributive effects of consolidation measures on the revenue …Read More
Mortensen, J., (2013), “Economic Policy Coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union: From Maastricht via the SGP to the Fiscal Pact”, CEPS, 14 August. This paper first takes a step backwards with an attempt to situate the recent adoption of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union in the context of discussions on the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the ‘Maastricht criteria’, as …Read More
Mody, Ash., (2013), “Sovereign debt and its restructuring framework in the euro area”, www.bruegel.org, 12 August. To compensate for the inflexibility of fixed exchange rates, the euro area needs flexibility through a system of orderly debt restructuring. With virtually no room for macroeconomic manoeuvring since the crisis onset, fiscal austerity has been the main instrument for achieving reductions in public debt levels; but because austerity also weakens growth, public debt ratios …Read More
Gros, D., (2013), “Has Austerity Failed in Europe?”, www.project-syndicate.org, 14 August. Although many European governments have announced expenditure cuts and tax hikes, their debt/GDP ratios continue to deteriorate. So, if the purpose of austerity was to reduce debt levels, its critics are right: fiscal belt-tightening has failed. But the goal of austerity was not just to stabilize debt ratios.
IMF, (2013), “2013 Spillover Report”, IMF Policy Paper. Five years after the global financial crisis, the severe tensions and risks rooted last year in some of the “Systemic five” (S5)—China, euro area, Japan, United Kingdom, United States––have abated but all five are still operating below potential, i.e., they are not contributing to global activity as much as they might: if they could somehow close their output gaps, global output would …Read More
Puntscher, S., Wydraa, D., (2013), “Representation in the European State of Emergency: Parliaments against Governments?”, Journal of European Integration, Vol. 35, Issue 5, pp. 565-582. If governments allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act, a break up of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.’ The statement of the Italian Prime Minister and head of …Read More
Bellamy, R., Kröger, S., (2013), “Representation Deficits and Surpluses in EU Policy-making”, Journal of European Integration, Vol. 35, Issue 5, pp. 477-497. Representation and democracy are not always complementary. Sometimes the one undermines the other. Too much democracy can create a representation deficit, as occurs when majorities oppress or neglect minorities. However, the opposite can also arise. The over representation of different groups can undermine the processes whereby representatives are …Read More
Osterloh, St., Heinemann, Fr., (2013), “The political economy of corporate tax harmonization — Why do European politicians (dis)like minimum tax rates?”, European Journal of Political Economy, Volume 29, pp. 18–37. Setting minimum tax rates is a well discussed way of mitigating pressure from tax competition. This paper investigates which motives shape the support for a minimum corporate tax among politicians. We make use of a unique data base: a survey …Read More
