Henk Esselink, Lola Hernández, (2017), “The use of cash by households in the euro area”, European Central Bank, Occasional Paper Series, No 201 / November 2017 Although euro banknotes and coins have been in circulation for fifteen years, not much is known about the actual use of cash by households. This paper presents an estimation of the number and value of cash transactions in all 19 euro area countries in 2016, based on survey results. It …Read More

Stefano Micossi, (2017), “A Blueprint for Completing the Banking Union”, CEPS Policy Insights No 2017/42, November Completing the banking union is an urgent project facing the EU, given the Εurozone’s continued vulnerability to idiosyncratic liquidity shocks to national banking systems. The proposed changes to the European deposit insurance scheme (EDIS) under consideration by the European Commission could open the way to a satisfactory compromise between the twin needs to reduce …Read More

Alois Stoger, Nicolas Schmit, (2017), “Putting Europe’s Long-Term Unemployed Back to Work”, Project Syndicate, 24 November Across the European Union, millions of people who are willing and able to work have been unemployed for a year or longer, at great cost to social cohesion and political stability. If the EU is serious about stopping the rise of populism, it will need to do more to ensure that labor markets are …Read More

Daniel Gros, (2017), “Banks as buyers of last resort for government bonds”, VoxEU, 27 November A key remaining issue for the completion of the Banking Union is the concentrated exposure of banks in many countries to their own sovereign. This column argues that the belief that banks should be allowed to buy large amounts of their own sovereign so they can stabilise the market in a crisis is mistaken for …Read More

John Loyd, (2017), “Commentary: What Merkel’s political woes mean for the EU”, Reuters, 24 Νovember The latest reason for pessimism is Germany, which from being the undisputed leader of Europe has suddenly descended to being the basket case. The latest blow: Angela Merkel’s struggle to keep control of the government after her struggle to cobble together a new ruling coalition collapsed last weekend. Relevant Posts Philippe Legrain, (2017), «The Twilight …Read More

Dan Andrews, Filippos Petroulakis, (2017), “Breaking the Shackles Zombie Firms, Weak Banks and Depressed Restructuring in Europe”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 20 November This paper explores the connection between “zombie” firms (firms that would typically exit in a competitive market) and bank health and the consequences for aggregate productivity in 11 European countries. Controlling for cyclical effects, the results show that zombie firms are more likely to be connected to weak …Read More

Gregory Claeys, Maria Demertzis, (2017), “How should the European Central Bank ‘normalise’ its monetary policy?”, Bruegel, 23 November As the global financial crisis unfolded, the European Central Bank (ECB) and other central banks greatly extended their monetary policy toolboxes and adjusted their operational frameworks. These unconventional monetary policies have left central banks with large balance sheets.As growth picks up in the euro area, there are discussions about how to normalise …Read More

Thorsten Beck, Hans‐Helmut Kotz, (2017), “New eBook: Ordoliberalism: A German oddity?”, VoxEU, 22 November The Eurozone crisis has opened fault lines between German economists and policymakers and those in a number of Eurozone (in particular periphery) countries.This column introduces a new eBook explaining the historical development of the ordoliberal school of economics and its influence on German policymaking, and contrasting it critically with what we like to call the Anglo-Saxon-Latin …Read More

Guido Tabellini, (2017), “Reforming the Eurozone: Structuring versus restructuring sovereign debts”, VoxEU, 23 Νovember In the debate on European reforms, a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism for the Eurozone is often proposed. This column argues that such a mechanism is not required. Instead, Eurozone member states should issue GDP-linked bonds, which would enact an implicit seniority structure on their sovereign debt and make the Eurozone more resilient to the next crisis. Relevant …Read More

Bjon Lomborg, (2017), “The R&D Road to Development”, Project Syndicate, 22 Νovember Research and development – into everything from cleaner ovens to preventing family violence – delivers some of the highest social benefits of any form of development intervention. Yet R&D is rarely the highest priority when development aid money is being allocated. Relevant Posts Manuel Muniz, (2017), «Economic Growth Is No Longer Enough», Project Syndicate, 25 October Ελένη Βαρβιτσιώτη, …Read More