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About Barry Eichengreen

Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley; and formerly Senior Policy Adviser at the International Monetary Fund.

Two Myths About Automation

by Barry Eichengreen on 12 January 2018

Two Myths About Automation

Robots, machine learning, and artificial intelligence promise to change fundamentally the nature of work. Everyone knows this. Or at least they think they do. Specifically, they think they know two things. First, more jobs than ever are threatened. “Forrester Predicts that AI-enabled Automation will Eliminate 9% of US Jobs in 2018,” declares one headline. “McKinsey: […]

The Euro’s Narrow Path

by Barry Eichengreen on 19 September 2017

The Euro’s Narrow Path

With Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election, and Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union enjoying a comfortable lead in opinion polls ahead of Germany’s general election on September 24, a window has opened for eurozone reform. The euro has always been a Franco-German project. With a dynamic new leader in one country and a […]

Is Germany Unbalanced Or Unhinged?

by Barry Eichengreen on 15 May 2017

Is Germany Unbalanced Or Unhinged?

For US President Donald Trump, the measure of a country’s economic strength is its current-account balance – its exports of goods and services minus its imports. This idea is of course the worst kind of economic nonsense. It underpins the doctrine known as mercantilism, which comprises a hoary set of beliefs discredited more than two […]

The Age Of Hyper-Uncertainty

by Barry Eichengreen on 9 January 2017

The Age Of Hyper-Uncertainty

The year 2017 will mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Age of Uncertainty. Forty years is a long time, but it is worth looking back and reminding ourselves of how much Galbraith and his readers had to be uncertain about. In 1977, as Galbraith was writing, the world was still […]

Globalisation’s Last Gasp

by Barry Eichengreen on 22 November 2016

Globalisation’s Last Gasp

Does Donald Trump’s election as United States president mean that globalisation is dead, or are reports of the process’ demise greatly exaggerated? If globalisation is only partly incapacitated, not terminally ill, should we worry? How much will slower trade growth, now in the offing, matter for the global economy? World trade growth would be slowing […]

Brexit And The Pound In Your Pocket

by Barry Eichengreen on 19 September 2016

Brexit And The Pound In Your Pocket

The early returns on Brexit are in, and, contrary to what some have been claiming, they’re not good. In July, following the referendum, consumer confidence collapsed at its most rapid rate since 1990. Surveys of manufacturing and construction dropped precipitously. While August’s data were better, it is too soon to say whether the improvement was […]

The Brexit Alarm

by Barry Eichengreen on 15 April 2016

The Brexit Alarm

I have no special expertise on the question of whether Britain should leave (or “Brexit”) the European Union. True, I did live in the United Kingdom until a bit less than a year ago. And here in California, we have our own Brexit-like debate, with a movement to place a proposal to secede from the […]

Why The World Economy Needs Fiscal Policy To Overcome Stagnation

by Barry Eichengreen on 18 March 2016

Why The World Economy Needs Fiscal Policy To Overcome Stagnation

The world economy is visibly sinking, and the policymakers who are supposed to be its stewards are tying themselves in knots. Or so suggest the results of the G-20 summit held in Shanghai at the end of last month. The International Monetary Fund, having just downgraded its forecast for global growth, warned the assembled G-20 […]

The Crisis Europe Needs

by Barry Eichengreen on 15 October 2015

The Crisis Europe Needs

It’s hard to be optimistic about Europe. Last summer, a political cage match between Germany and Greece threatened to tear the European Union apart. In country after country, extremist political parties are gaining ground. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine, in the EU’s backyard, has turned the common European foreign and security policy […]

Saving Greece, Saving Europe

by Barry Eichengreen on 14 July 2015

Saving Greece, Saving Europe

Whatever one thinks about the tactics of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government in negotiations with the country’s creditors, the Greek people deserve better than what they are being offered. Germany wants Greece to choose between economic collapse and leaving the eurozone. Both options would mean economic disaster; the first, if not both, would be […]

We Are A Matter Of Weeks Away From A Greek Default Unless A Deal Can Be Reached

by Barry Eichengreen on 22 May 2015

We Are A Matter Of Weeks Away From A Greek Default Unless A Deal Can Be Reached

With no agreement yet reached between Greece and its creditors, there are doubts over whether the country will be able to make a scheduled debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund in early June. In an interview with EUROPP’s editor Stuart Brown, Barry Eichengreen discusses whether a compromise is still possible, what a default would mean for […]

Losing Interest

by Barry Eichengreen on 14 April 2014

Losing Interest

Two of the world’s most prominent economic institutions, the International Monetary Fund and Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, recently warned that the global economy may be facing an extended period of low interest rates. Why is that a bad thing, and what can be done about it? Adjusted for inflation, interest rates have been falling for […]

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New Social Europe Book

There is increasing evidence of widespread disillusion with the major shift to neoliberal economic policies that has taken place across much of the world. In this account of neoliberalism’s failings, Colin Crouch recognises some of its positive contributions but also notes conflicts within the neoliberal camp – particularly those between ‘market’ and ‘corporate’ forms of the strategy. Finally, he considers to what extent those behind the great experiment are now capable of accepting its reform.


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Explore employment estimates from the International Labour Organization. Create charts and download data with the WESO Data Finder.
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Labour Market Reforms in Europe after 2010

This working paper examines the impact of fiscal austerity on EU labour market policies. Using a case study approach, it examines: the extent of change in unemployment benefit levels and policies; the effect of this on groups of workers; and whether the logic of activation policies has shifted. Overall, the broad direction of policy has not altered greatly under austerity. However, risks remain that an underlying move towards greater flexibility may lock in ‘low road’ growth strategies that will make it harder to bring down debt and unemployment in future.


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Statutory Minimum Wages 2018

Eurofound’s Statutory minimum wages 2018 report provides information on minimum wage rates that are not limited to specific sectors, occupations or groups of employees. It aims to answer a number of key questions on the coverage and impact of minimum wages in Europe; including how statutory minimum wages are determined, how minimum wages compare to average and median wages, and the different discussions ongoing in Europe on the issue. The report shows that increases to statutory minimum wages have gathered pace since 2010, but huge gaps remain in minimum wage rates across Europe.


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Social Europe Edition Book

Zygmunt Bauman was a towering intellectual who saw and analysed – right up to his death in early 2017 – the great socio-political changes, often convulsive, in modern western society long before his peers. Here we highlight his prescient insights into what he dubbed ‘liquid modernity’ with 24 chapters on topics ranging from online loneliness via precarity/poverty/inequality to migration, fear of the ‘Other’ and the decline of the nation state. Chronicle of Crisis, 2011-16, written by one of the great chroniclers of our times, will be read and re-read for decades and more to come.


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The European Union needs a democratic restart to make people enthusiastic about the European idea again. A key factor in this is greater mandatory employee participation. The European Dialogue 2018 is sounding out what the requirements for strengthening the “Worker´s Voice” are and what the European politicians should do.


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