Alternative Strategies for Fighting Unemployment
Lessons from the European experience
Gilles Saint-Paul
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 35 - 55
During more than three decades of protracted high unemployment, European countries have developed a variety of approaches in order to tackle the problem. These strategies differ in their philosophy, scopes and successes. A number of them can be understood in terms of shying away from full-fledged li ... Read more
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Challenging Times for UK Monetary Policy
Andrew Sentance
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 1 - 10
Global economic developments have recently thrown up two major challenges for the setting of UK monetary policy. The recent global financial turmoil threatens to reinforce the slowdown in the UK and globally. But rising energy and commodity prices will push up inflation in the short term, and pose a ... Read more
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Can China Learn from Sweden?
Arne Bigsten
Volume 8, Number 2, 2007, pages 17 - 40
China is undergoing a very rapid process of structural and institutional transformation, which has led to dramatic increases in income levels. During this process, the country is facing a series of development challenges that need to be dealt with in order to sustain growth. The question posed in th ... Read more
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Has the European Social Model a Future?
J. R. Shackleton
Volume 7, Number 3, 2006, pages 43 - 62
The European Social Model, involving high levels of government spending and taxation, labour and product market regulation and the involvement of the “social partners”, is in crisis. The core European economies are experiencing low economic growth, slow job creation and high levels of unemployment. ... Read more
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European Financial Market Integration
Distant dream or nascent reality?
Patrice Muller
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 139 - 158
European Monetary Union and a vigorous legislative agenda have profoundly
changed the environment in which the European financial services industry
operates. These developments should have contributed to a deepening of
financial market integration in the European Union, especially within the
Eur ... Read more
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Does European Union Environmental Policy Pass a Cost–Benefit Test?
David Pearce
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 115 - 137
Most European Union countries are committed to some form of regulatory
impact assessment, and in some cases these assessments involve the formal use
of cost–benefit analysis. The European Treaty of Union also calls for a
comparison of costs and benefits for all European regulations. Despite this, ... Read more
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A Single European Market in Asset Management
Vision and reality
Friedrich Heinemann
Volume 5, Number 1, 2004, pages 133 - 158
In spite of progress with integration, the European single market is still far from
perfect. In particular, financial services markets are still heavily segmented along
national borders—even in the era of the Internet and the Euro. In order to
understand the reasons for and consequences of incomp ... Read more
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Five Centuries of Energy Prices
Roger Fouquet & Peter Pearson
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 93 - 119
Concerns about rising energy prices tend to occur in times of economic
expansion, to disappear in times of recession. A recurring fear is that, in the long
run, real energy prices will trend upwards. This paper presents evidence from
five hundred years of prices of energy sources for the United K ... Read more
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Is Economic Growth Good For Us?
Nicholas Crafts
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 35 - 49
This article reviews Britain’s experience of economic growth in the twentieth
century. It argues that average living standards have risen much more rapidly than
is generally appreciated. The main reasons for this include increased life
expectancy which is highly valued by the public and downward ... Read more
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Measuring Consumer Inflation in the United Kingdom
Recent developments and the future outlook
David Fenwick
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 175 - 184
Responding to Mick Silver’s proposals regarding the RPI, David Fenwick of the
ONS summarises some of the issues that confront compilers of price indices. ... Read more
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Some Proposed Methodological Developments for the UK Retail Prices Index
Mick Silver
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 153 - 173
The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is one of the UK’s most important macroeconomic
indicators, as well as being used for indexation/adjustments for inflation
to wages and benefits. This paper argues that the dynamic changes in product
markets and consumers’ responses to price changes need to be incorp ... Read more
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How to Reform Europe’s Fiscal Policy Framework
Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 109 - 116
The current budgetary problems of some EU member states have intensified the
debate on Europe’s fiscal policy framework. It is not enough to change the
interpretation of the Stability and Growth Pact. More fundamental revisions of
the EU Treaty are needed in order to strike a reasonable balance b ... Read more
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Some Lessons from a Single Currency
Alan J. Brown
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 99 - 107
This article looks at the early experience of the Euro and argues that both the
original rules established for the European Central Bank and the Stability and
Growth pact need to be reconsidered. Failure to do so will result in the whole
European economy delivering less growth and prosperity. Wit ... Read more
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Why The Five Economic Tests?
The decision about British membership of a single European currency in historical context
Ed Balls
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 73 - 98
Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury, Ed Balls, sets out the government’s
approach to making the decision about British membership of a single European
currency in an historical context. The basis for deciding whether there is a clear
and unambiguous economic case to join the single currency is ... Read more
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Ready to Join the EU?
On the status of reform in the candidate countries
Federico Foders, Daniel Piazolo & Rainer Schweickert
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 43 - 72
This paper presents a new set of indicators concerning the status of economic
reform in the candidate countries for the enlargement of the European Union
which is scheduled for 2004. After an overview of indicators of institutional
development, macroeconomic policy and trade policy, a composite i ... Read more
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The UK’s Achievement of Economic Stability
How and why did it happen?
Tim Congdon
Volume 3, Number 4, 2002, pages 25 - 41
The UK achieved a remarkable degree of macro-economic stability in the 1990s.
Contrary to expectations when the pound was expelled from the European
exchange rate mechanism in September 1992, over the next ten years inflation
was kept almost exactly on target and its volatility declined by over 9 ... Read more
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The Case for Congestion Charging
David Begg & David Gray
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 71 - 84
Car use has grown significantly in the UK in recent years, raising concerns about pollution and congestion. Although existing fiscal measures have been effective in tackling the former, the UK now has the worst traffic congestion in Europe. The economic costs of congestion are considerable, and moto ... Read more
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The Quest for Stability
Alan Budd
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 55 - 70
The UK seems to be enjoying a golden age of macroeconomic policy-making.
Growth is steady; inflation is low and stable, and unemployment is low. After
years of trying to achieve economic stability we seem to have found the answer.
This paper explores the history of policy-making from the late 195 ... Read more
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Slobodan Milosevic and the Fire of Nationalism
Ronald Wintrobe
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 1 - 26
This paper is an economist’s attempt to understand the behaviour of dictators
with special reference to the Milosevic regime in Serbia. The author focuses on
nationalism, ethnic cleansing and war, especially the most recent war with
NATO. The basic argument is simple. First, like any dictator, Mi ... Read more
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Does the Eurozone Face 50 Years of Economic Stagnation?
Tim Congdon
Volume 3, Number 2, 2002, pages 47 - 60
The newly-formed European currency will compete with the dollar to become
the world’s leading currency in the 21st century. Its prospects in this competition will depend partly on the size of the European economy compared with the US economy. This article argues that unprecedented demographic trend ... Read more
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Eastern Enlargement and EU Labour Markets
Perceptions, challenges and opportunities
Tito Boeri & Herbert Brücker
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 49 - 68
This paper summarises the key findings of a recent study on the impact of
Eastern Enlargement of the European Union (EU) on labour markets in the
current Member States. The study focuses on three main channels along which
enlargement may affect labour markets in the EU, namely i) trade, ii) forei ... Read more
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From Rags to Riches
Ireland’s economic boom
Brendan Walsh
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 113 - 133
This article explores the factors behind the Irish
economic renaissance of the 1990s. These include the fiscal correction of the 1980s, the availability of an ample supply of well-educated labour, a
competitive exchange rate, and the inflow of EU aid. The reintroduction of ‘social
partnership’ is ... Read more
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The Thirty-five Hour Working Week
Flexibilité, compétitivité, productivité-a French Revolution
Alan Kirman
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 41 - 54
The introduction of a reduced working week (RWW) in France has been widely condemned as an arbitrary additional constraint in an already rigid labour market. This article explores the origins of the law, and the reasons for the negative appreciation by economists of this measure. However, it goes on ... Read more
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Welfare-to-work and the New Deal
Richard Layard
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 29 - 39
Welfare-to-work is on trial in many countries. In Britain it has become the
government’s most important policy for lowering unemployment and expanding
labour supply. But can it work? And what lessons does Britain’s experience
provide for other countries? This paper argues that whilst ... Read more
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Housing in the South East of England
Some issues raised by the Government’s plans
David Miles
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 1 - 11
Plans recently unveiled by the UK government will, if implemented, generate a
major increase in new housebuilding in one of the most crowded and congested
parts of the UK. The plans fail to take account of the impact on people living in
London and the South East—and in the rest of the ... Read more
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Extending the UK National Accounts
What can be done?
Amanda Rowlatt
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 139 - 151
The national accounts measure economic activity. The UK is developing "satellite accounts" which use the framework of the national accounts but aim to quantify other aspects of living standards. This article starts by comparing satellite accounts with the use of indicators to measure the quality o ... Read more
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European Pension Reforms
A study by Merrill Lynch
Jan Mantel & David Bowers
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 103 - 138
Are the present pension systems in Europe substainable? Can the pensions time bomb caused by demographic changes be defused? This study describes developments in Europe, but the theory, the problems and the solutions are similar for most developed nations in the rest of the world. The combination of ... Read more
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Pension Reform in Germany
To fund or not to fund
Axel Börsch-Supan
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000<