Moving beyond coal: policy lessons from across Europe
A new report has identified good and bad practices which can inform national efforts at ‘just transition’.
Economy
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on economic issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Beyond ‘green growth’
A serious discussion of ‘just transition’ must break with a social model based on individual utility maximisation—before it breaks the biosphere.
A just transition with climate and social ambition
The deputy prime minister of Spain responsible for the ecological transition describes the experience there of making ‘just transition’ a reality.
Wind-power slump blows Germany off course on climate targets
Germany has forged a reputation with its Energiewende flip over to renewables. But as construction of wind turbines stagnates, can it hit its ambitious climate targets?
The European Green Deal: will the ends, will the means?
The European Green Deal needs sustained political commitment, especially on ‘just transition’, if it is to realise its ambition.
Another year of living dangerously
Twenty twenty will be another year of living dangerously if short-term policies continue to be pursued at the expense of long-term vision.
Time is ripe for a new ECB strategy
It’s not so much that what the European Central Bank is doing is wrong as that it is not framing public understanding. The next ECB strategy, writes Peter Bofinger, should do so.
The right macroeconomic policies for a Europe saving too much
German hawks are not just wrong about monetary and fiscal policies and risk-sharing in an ailing European economy—their demands are inconsistent.
Financial capitalism is here to stay, but in what form?
It is wrong to treat financial capitalism as the dysfunctional child of neoliberalism and so misdirect a progressive policy focus.
Sustainability is social, environmental and economic
The principle of ‘sustainability first’ should become the golden thread unifying all EU actions.
Can sustainable finance really help solve the climate crisis?
It is wrong to believe the financial sector will contribute to ecological transformation. Economic and environmental policies remain key.
The end of neoliberalism and the rebirth of history
For 40 years, elites in rich and poor countries promised neoliberal policies would lead to faster growth and the benefits would trickle down so that everyone would be better off.
Germany can reduce its external surplus
For years, Germany's ballooning current-account surplus has rankled the rest of the world. It is a result of policies fully within the government's power to change.
Antifragile states
Branko Milanovic explains how globalisation has allowed small states to become major players and big cities to outgrow their nation-states.
The German impasse
Adam Tooze dissects how the macroeconomic policy discourse is disabling necessary German, and European, steps forward.
International tax emergency: a critical time for developing nations to speak up!
An OECD proposal to reduce transnational tax evasion contains flaws which developing countries must challenge before it is set in stone.