This essay is part of a PIIE series on Economic Policy for a Pandemic Age: How the World Must Prepare for a Lasting Threat. When the COVID-19 crisis spread in early 2020, many economists who stepped forward with projections of its impact assumed that a one-time shock...
Suddenly central banks are in the middle of the climate-policy debate and it always seems to zoom in on one question: Should they stop buying “brown” bonds? Either yes, and the traditional inflation-fighting mandate goes out the window, or no and the central bank is...
The Brexit story has entered a new phase. The United Kingdom’s exit from the European single market on 1 January was orderly in the financial sector, despite significant shifts of liquidity in shares and derivatives, and unlike the shift in trade for goods. In...
We thank Lionel Guetta-Jeanrenaud for excellent research assistance and Faÿçal Hafied for drawing our attention to ESOPs. We are grateful to seminar participants at Bruegel for comments and suggestions. This research has received funding from the European Union’s...
Maria Demertzis and Nicola Vegi join Giuseppe Porcaro to talk about their recent research on low interest rates, declining productivity growth and how to tackle this. In both Europe and the United States, interest rates have been declining for more than fifteen...
This opinion piece was originally published in China Focus. After a very unpredictable and difficult 2020, this year’s Two Sessions in China – the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference...
This paper was prepared for the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON). This in-depth analysis is available on the European Parliament’s online database, ‘ThinkTank‘. Copyright remains with the European Parliament at all times. This...
The European Union’s plan for climate neutrality by 2050 reopens the question of the role carbon pricing can and should play. Carbon pricing should not – and ultimately cannot – only be an enforcement tool or backstop that ensures targets are met, while the...
COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns and work-from-home orders have forced businesses and employees to rethink existing working modes. Advances in information and communications technologies have allowed many knowledge workers to switch to home-based teleworking...
This opinion piece was originally published in Foreign Affairs, Rzeczpospolita, Domani, Le Monde and La Vanguardia. The European Union’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050 is not only a revolutionary exercise in shifting the continent’s energy, consumer and travel...
This podcast episode is part of Bruegel’s macroeconomic outlook series of The Sound of Economics, in which we bring you regular analysis of all things macro and fiscal policy. This February, the European Commission published the Winter 2021 Economic Forecast with the...
By now, the broad outlines of the European Union’s post-coronavirus recovery fund, Next Generation EU, are well known. Under NGEU, the European Commission will borrow up to €806 billion (current prices) and distribute it over six years to all EU countries. Most (€420...