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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.

Closing the Chasm: Central and Eastern Europe’s Continued Minimum Wage Climb

Carlos Vacas-Soriano and Christine Aumayr-Pintar 21st May 2025

Minimum wages in Central and Eastern Europe continue to rise, narrowing the gap with Western European levels.

Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite Him

Nouriel Roubini 16th May 2025

Markets, innovation, and AI are overpowering Trump’s chaos—and pushing America toward 4% growth, recession or not.

Why Europe Needs Its Own AI Infrastructure

Diane Coyle 12th May 2025

Trump’s return highlights why Europe must build its own AI ecosystem—secure, competitive, and true to its values.

Italy’s Minimum Wage Dilemma: Will EU Pressure Force a Policy Shift?

Guglielmo Meardi and Francesco Seghezzi 5th May 2025

Despite EU moves, Italy resists a national minimum wage amid trade union scepticism.

Trump’s America: The New Global Tax Haven?

Joseph Stiglitz 30th April 2025

Trump is turning America into a tax haven, dismantling safeguards and fueling inequality through global deregulation.

Robots Boost Workplace Safety, But Only in High-tech and Well-protected Economies

Marco De Simone, Dario Guarascio and Jelena Reljic 28th April 2025

New research reveals that automation benefits are not universal.

Germany Ditches Debt Brake—A Fiscal Revolution Begins

Peter Bofinger 21st March 2025

Germany scraps its debt brake, unleashing a 500-billion-euro investment plan that could transform infrastructure, defence, and economic growth.

America’s Oligarchs Are Trump’s Achilles’ Heel

Gabriel Zucman 5th March 2025

Trump’s “America First” policies upend global order, igniting calls to tax oligarchs and disrupt international trade.

Economics – An Apology

Thorvaldur Gylfason 3rd March 2025

Mainstream economics has shaped modern policymaking, but its failures and ideological divides reveal deeper systemic flaws.

Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?

Malcolm Fairbrother 17th February 2025

As Donald Trump dismantles free trade, Canada and Mexico face an urgent choice: endure or pivot.

Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay Focused

Stefan Stern 10th February 2025

Amid political chaos, smart executives keep their eyes on real growth—green tech, innovation, and long-term resilience.

Mainstream Economics: A Catalogue of Failures

James K Galbraith 6th February 2025

A critique of mainstream economics’ failures and its resistance to change.

Trump’s Tariff Gamble: Will America’s “Golden Age” End in an Economic Nightmare?

Harold James 30th January 2025

Trump’s tariff push risks backfiring, threatening U.S. growth, global investment, and the economic stability he promises.

Trump’s Trade Tariffs: Economic Weapon or Self-Inflicted Wound?

Dani Rodrik 24th January 2025

Trump’s sweeping tariffs promise to reshape global trade.

EU Minimum Wage Directive Before the European Court of Justice: It’s Not All Over Now…

Thorsten Schulten and Torsten Müller 22nd January 2025

EU’s minimum wage directive is under threat.

How to break Europe’s innovation stasis

Luc Soete 15th January 2025

The new EU Commission must confront fragmented policies, revitalise competitiveness, and integrate security into its growth strategy.

How Europe’s fiscal rules are strangling growth

Paul De Grauwe 10th January 2025

The 2024 Stability and Growth Pact reforms entrench austerity and stifle investment.

Limited options to change employers keep wages low

Wouter Zwysen 18th December 2024

Concentrated labour markets and non-compete agreements erode worker bargaining power.

Industrial Policy: Key to Europe’s Role in a Shifting World Order

Karl Aiginger 13th December 2024

Europe can assume a greater role, but must uphold its ambitions and forge new partnerships.

EU pushes to reclassify platform workers, but how will platforms react?

Tiago Vieira and Pedro Mendonca 6th December 2024

The EU’s Platform Work Directive aims to end worker misclassification, but its success depends on platform compliance.

Can the EU Export Its Values? How ‘Social Europe’ Shapes Global Labour Standards 

Damian Raess and Patrick Wagner 29th November 2024

How the EU’s Social Europe model influences global labour standards through inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

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The Politics of Unpaid Work

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Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

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Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


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WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

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