Latest posts
"Only The Poor Die Young" by Johan P. Mackenbach
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People who are lower on the socioeconomic ladder (indicated by their level of education, occupation, or income) have shorter and less healthy lives, on average, than those on higher rungs. Indeed, life expectancy at birth often varies by 5-10 years,...
"The Rise And Fall Of The Fiscal Austerity Doctrine" by Iyanatul Islam
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The fiscal austerity doctrine – henceforth FAD – emerged in full force in the Euro area in the first half of 2010. By then, apprehensions of a sovereign debt crisis that have been brewing since the last quarter of 2009 became a harsh real...
"In Which Jörg Asmussen Finally Cures Me Of A Delusion" by Andrew Watt
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I have been involved in European economic policy debates for, well, longer than I care to remember. Whatever the disagreements I always made a point of crediting my interlocutors with good (or at least not seriously malign) intentions and made a seri...
"Europe In Depression: Even Worse On The Periphery" by David Lizoain
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Paul Krugman recently shared a graphic from Eurostat that shows just how bad the employment situation is in Europe on the whole. Of course, the situation is much worse on the periphery. The graph below shows the evolution of emplo...
"A Social Europe Requires A Change Of Course For The Young Generation" by Berthold Huber
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A social Europe does not come about on the drawing board – only a concerted effort will allow it to develop. The path to another Europe, a social one, therefore has to start with the concrete needs and concerns of its citizens. The current cris...
"Fiscal Implications Of The ECB’s Bond-buying Programme" by Paul de Grauwe and Yuemei Ji
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There is a lot of confusion about the fiscal implications of the government bond-buying programme – the OMT, or Outright Monetary Transactions – that the ECB announced last year. This confusion arises mainly because the principles that gu...
"A Social Dimension For A Changing European Union: The Irish Case" by David Begg
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The problem with the concept of ‘Social Europe’ is that there is no one social model that applies. Moreover, there is a collective action problem for member states even if they wish to achieve a single model – a point discussed late...
"Social Policy Will Be Critical To A Sustainable EMU" by Simon Deakin
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European policy-makers have some vitally important decisions to make in the coming weeks. The June meeting of the European Council is due to consider the role of social policy in the wider context of economic and monetary union (‘EMU’). T...
"The European Semester And Its Recommendations On Wages" by Ronald Janssen
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The Commission is still letting surplus countries off the hook. From the moment European Economic Governance was launched, it was denounced by trade unions as being an unbalanced system. The Commission was letting surplus countries such as Germany of...
"Social Democracy: Trap, Utopia Or New Horizon For Europe ?" by Pierre Héritier
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The social dimension of Europe is not restricted to social protection: what will be the place of labour and of workers in an economy dominated by the market forces? What new foundation of the relations between capital and labour can we consider? Soci...
"High Noon For Social Europe" by Bernadette Segol
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Listening to some EU leaders, you might think the economic crisis is all but over. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the millions of Europeans still suffering unprecedented hardship and deep cuts in living standards know only too well.
"How Do We Stop A Civil War In Turkey?" by Shayn McCallum
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Things have taken a sharp turn for the worse in Turkey and, unfortunately, it is becoming harder and harder to see how to pull back from the brink of disaster. At this moment the Prime Minister is addressing an AKP party rally in Kazlıçe&...
"One more reason to end this depression now – fascism" by Andrew Watt
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Concern has frequently been expressed that the deep and ongoing economic crisis in Europe, especially in the so-called periphery, could lead to a rise of political extremism. Reference is often made to the inter-war experience of Germany where the ma...
"ERT Shutdown Attests To Wider Challenges For Greece" by Nick Malkoutzis
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Having ploughed on through a number of sticky patches over the last 12 months, it would be more than careless of Greece’s coalition government to sink into the mire due to differences over how to deal with public broadcaster ERT. Yet, a year on...
"How A Greek Drama Became A Global Tragedy" by Simon Wren-Lewis
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Maybe that title is too strong, but there is an arguable case that what happened to Greece in 2010 was crucial in the move to austerity not just in the Eurozone, but in the UK and US too. As most reasonable people now recognise that the global move t...
"The Troika And Multi-Employer Bargaining" by Thorsten Schulten
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How European pressure is destroying national collective bargaining systems. Collective agreements that extend beyond the immediate workplace or company level are rightly seen as one of the unique institutional features of the European social model. N...
"The European System Of Industrial Relations And The Dynamics Of Transnational Company Agreements" by Udo Rehfeldt
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European Works Councils (EWCs) and transnational company agreements are a cornerstone of the social dimension of the European Union. They constitute the most dynamic element of the European system of industrial relations which has emerged in the last...
"European Social Dialogue: A Stalled Engine" by Joël Decaillon
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Social dialogue dates back to the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. It has gradually been incorporated into the treaties in a number of stages, most notably the Social Protocol of the Maastricht Treaty. Social dialog...
"An European Approach To Coordinate Welfare Policies: The Corridor Model" by Klaus Busch
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The Euro crisis has by no means been surmounted. As a result of tough austerity measures Europe faces now a recession. On behalf of drastic cuts in social security provisions, real wage cuts in many member states and record high levels of unemploymen...
"Europe’s Way Out" by Dani Rodrik
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It seems that austerity is out of fashion in the eurozone – at least for the moment. The European Commission has given Spain, France, and the Netherlands more time to comply with the European Union’s 3%-of-GDP deficit ceiling. Even German...
