Social Europe articles on the economy

Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher that publishes content examining issues in politics, economy and employment & labour. This archive brings together Social Europe articles on the economy.

Reforming Europe’s fiscal rules

by Enrico D'Elia on 24th March 2020

Why do the Maastricht criteria compare budget deficits and public debt with GDP rather than budget revenues? That’s a good question.

A eurozone reform northern and southern countries can share

by Andrea Boitani and Roberto Tamborini on 24th March 2020

Eurozone reform has appeared stymied by the tension between purportedly abstemious northern and spendthrift southern members. It needn’t be.

Coronavirus crisis: now is the hour of Modern Monetary Theory

by Peter Bofinger on 23rd March 2020

Peter Bofinger argues MMT provides intellectual justification for a ‘whatever it takes’ fiscal response to potentially the biggest global postwar economic challenge

Welcome but inadequate: European measures to counter the corona crisis

by Andrew Watt on 20th March 2020

More monetary-policy easing is still a one-club approach—fiscal support is also needed at EU level.

Europe under quarantine

by Javier López on 20th March 2020

The coronavirus crisis has exposed the shared vulnerability of Europe’s interdependence. Time to turn that into a strength.

The Covid-19 debt deluge

by Jayati Ghosh on 19th March 2020

The Covid-19 crisis may have set the stage for a debt meltdown long in the making, starting in the Asian economies on the front lines.

Here we go again: Europe’s inability to face the coronavirus crisis

by Mario Pianta and Matteo Lucchese on 19th March 2020

The spread of Covid-19 has called into question—once again—the frailties of the European Union.

Covid-19 is an opportunity for Europe

by Lucrezia Reichlin on 17th March 2020

The EU has always advanced on the back of crises. The Covid-19 outbreak represents a chance to pools resources towards a co-ordinated fiscal policy.

Preventing the next virus outbreak

by Michal Rotem on 16th March 2020

The coronavirus is not a natural disaster but the outcome of a system of agriculture subordinating animal, and human, welfare.

The economic effects of a pandemic

by Simon Wren-Lewis on 10th March 2020

The human effects of the coronavirus are paramount. But what will be its impact on a medium-sized economy such as that of the UK?

Cohesion and progressivity: the Multiannual Financial Framework and Just Transition

by Dencho Georgiev, Tatiana Houbenova-Delisivkova and Irena Ilieva on 5th March 2020

The European Council failed to agree last week on a new budget. The optimum MFF cannot emerge from zero-sum bargaining.

Hard truths about the eurozone crisis

by Adam Tooze on 2nd March 2020

There has been little honest reflection within the European Commission about the eurozone crisis. Until now.

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.

For a Sound Fiscal Policy

The public sector in Germany has massively neglected its investments in the past two decades. The result is a public capital stock that does not meet the requirements of a modern economy and is inadequate to meet the challenges posed by the imminent demographic change and the international commitments for decarbonisation. If the requirements in the areas of education, transport, communication networks and decarbonisation are added together, the additional public investment or public investment promotion required over the next 10 years is around €450 billion, i.e. around €45 billion per year. From a macroeconomic perspective, this amount can be shouldered well, but it is unrealistic to finance these investments solely by redeploying funds in existing budgets. For this reason, the debt rules in the Germen constitution should be extended to include a golden rule allowing borrowing to the extent of net investment. Until such a rule is implemented, room for manoeuvre should be used, for example through extra-budgetary entities. It is also important to provide sustainable debt relief for municipalities, which play a central role in public investment, especially in transport infrastructure.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Social policy in the European Union 1999-2019: the long and winding road

This volume is the 20th anniversary edition of Social policy in the EU: state of play. It looks back at the main developments in EU social policymaking over the past two decades. Key questions addressed include:

* What was the place of the social dimension during the financial and economic crisis?

* Who has driven, and who has braked, EU social policymaking?

* Which instruments does the EU have at its disposal for ‘market correcting’ policies?

* What are the next steps in the further implementation of the EU’s social dimension, especially in the context of the European Pillar of Social Rights?

FREE DOWNLOAD

What makes capital cities the best places to live?

Eurofound’s new analysis of the latest European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) compares quality of life and well-being, quality of society, and quality of public services in Europe’s capitals and major cities with respective national averages. The study not only gives an indication of what perceptions of quality of life is like for the 48 million people that live in capital cities in the EU, but also other major European cities such as Istanbul and Belgrade.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

Social Europe Volume Two

This book brings to you some of the best contributions published on Social Europe over the second half of 2019 in easily accessible ebook and paperback formats. The collection is newly edited with a thematic focus on the rise of populism and also includes in text-form previously unpublished material from Social Europe Podcast. This second volume brings together contributions by Cas Mudde, Dani Rodrik, Peter Verovsek, Branko Milanovic, Sheri Berman, Paul Mason, Bela Galgoczi, Mariana Mazzucato and Ngaire Woods.