Download or read book Competitiveness in the European Economy written by Stefan Collignon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the relationship between the competitiveness of countries in Europe and the analysis of macroeconomic imbalances. It focuses mainly on a European analysis, along with special studies of the German economy, which is rarely considered to be a cause for the current crisis. The book also compares Germany with Italy, providing a comparative perspective on structural reforms. The first part of this book analyses macroeconomic imbalances based on a new framework from the analysis of the flow of founds rather than balance of payments, and presents an alternative measure of unit labour cost comparisons to investigate the relationship between imbalances and competitiveness. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the trade performance of Germany and Italy and the sustainability of the German model in the EMU. The third part describes the reform policies implemented by Germany and their effect on imbalances; this includes wage moderation, the labour market reforms and weak labour demand. The final part explores the regional inequalities within Germany and Italy, providing useful lessons regarding fiscal federalism and regional banking developments. In conclusion, a big part of the problems within the Euro Area are generated by the use of a wrong framework of analysis, where the EMU is considered as a fixed exchange rate regime and not a single country. This book provides an alternative view which holds at the core the relationship between sectors. It is stressed throughout the book that the German behaviour has contributed to the rise of imbalances between countries due to its growth model, not suitable for a big developed country in a currency union. This book also finds that stressing banking integration within countries helps to reduce regional inequalities, which has important implications for the management of Europe’s future banking union and macroeconomic imbalances.
Download or read book Wage Led Growth written by Engelbert Stockhammer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume seeks to go beyond the microeconomic view of wages as a cost having negative consequences on a given firm, to consider the positive macroeconomic dynamics associated with wages as a major component of aggregate demand.
Download or read book Economic Imbalances and Institutional Changes to the Euro and the European Union written by Rajmund Mirdala and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a critical perspective from which to observe evolution of the Euro Area and the European Union in these times of growing economic and political conflict.
Download or read book Imbalance written by Tobias Schulze-Cleven and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Germany is a central case for research on comparative political economy, which has inspired theorizing on national differences and historical trajectories. This book assesses Germany’s political economy after the end of the "social democratic" 20th century to rethink its dominant properties and create new opportunities for using the country as a powerful lens into the evolution of democratic capitalism. Documenting large-scale changes and new tensions in the welfare state, company strategies, interest intermediation, and macroeconomic governance, the volume makes the case for analysing contemporary Germany through the politics of imbalance rather than the long-standing paradigm of institutional stability. This conceptual reorientation around inequalities and disparities provides much-needed traction for clarifying the causal dynamics that govern ongoing processes of institutional recomposition. Delving into the politics of imbalance, the volume explicates the systemic properties of capitalism, multivalent policy feedback, and the organizational foundations of creative adjustment as key vantage points for understanding new forms of distributional conflict within and beyond Germany. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of German Politics.
Download or read book Capitalism Against Capitalism written by Michael Albert and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-01-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communism has collapsed. Capitalism has rid itself of the competition on which it thrives. But though now victorious, capitalism has become a threat. The future of us all may be shaped by the outcome of the conflict between capitalism as victor and capitalism as threat. Not only in Europe, but also in the US and Japan - and no doubt shortly in the Eastern countries too - the great debate is capitalism versus capitalism. On the one hand is the "neo-American" model based on individual achievement and short-term profits. On the other is the Rhine model practices in Switzerland, Germany, Benelux, Northern Europe and, partly, in Japan. In the Rhine model collective achievement and public concensus are seen as the keys to long-term success. The first is more seductive, the second more effective. These two opposing forms of capitalism are engaged in a war which, like all internal conflicts, involves both secrecy and even hypocrisy. The outcome of this struggle could affect the quality of life on all levels of society. The author of this book aims to provide a synthesis which will force the reader to consider the political and economic issues at stake towards the end of the century.
Download or read book Towards Convergence in Europe written by Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to answer a number of important questions. To what extent have European countries converged or diverged with EU-wide economic and social indicators over the past 20 years? What have been the drivers of convergence? Why do some countries lag behind, while others experience continuous upward convergence? Why are these trajectories not always linear? Particular attention is paid to the role of institutions, actors and industrial relations – focusing on the resources and strategies of governments, employers and trade unions – in nudging EU countries onto an upward convergence path.
Download or read book Competitiveness in the European Economy written by Stefan Collignon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the relationship between the competitiveness of countries in Europe and the analysis of macroeconomic imbalances. It focuses mainly on a European analysis, along with special studies of the German economy, which is rarely considered to be a cause for the current crisis. The book also compares Germany with Italy, providing a comparative perspective on structural reforms. The first part of this book analyses macroeconomic imbalances based on a new framework from the analysis of the flow of founds rather than balance of payments, and presents an alternative measure of unit labour cost comparisons to investigate the relationship between imbalances and competitiveness. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the trade performance of Germany and Italy and the sustainability of the German model in the EMU. The third part describes the reform policies implemented by Germany and their effect on imbalances; this includes wage moderation, the labour market reforms and weak labour demand. The final part explores the regional inequalities within Germany and Italy, providing useful lessons regarding fiscal federalism and regional banking developments. In conclusion, a big part of the problems within the Euro Area are generated by the use of a wrong framework of analysis, where the EMU is considered as a fixed exchange rate regime and not a single country. This book provides an alternative view which holds at the core the relationship between sectors. It is stressed throughout the book that the German behaviour has contributed to the rise of imbalances between countries due to its growth model, not suitable for a big developed country in a currency union. This book also finds that stressing banking integration within countries helps to reduce regional inequalities, which has important implications for the management of Europe’s future banking union and macroeconomic imbalances.
Download or read book The European Monetary Union written by Nicola Acocella and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Union is at a crossroads. This book analyzes the historical roots of the EU's monetary and financial institutions in order to better understand its struggle to maintain an economic and monetary union, as well as the ongoing problems facing the Euro. The institutions of the EU are based on the operation of free markets, a common monetary policy, and the European Central Bank. These founding policies have created many of the imbalances at the root of the ongoing European recession. Reemerging threats of populism and localism are poised to further disintegrate the European construction and may spark fierce opposition between countries. Acocella engages with these risks, suggesting detailed actions for reform within the EU and its institutions that may steer it away from further conflict, allowing it to better serve its member states and citizens.
Download or read book The German Model written by Brigitte Unger and published by Sophie Enterprises. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Financial Crisis in 2008 Germany has performed economically far better than most of its neighbouring countries. What makes Germany so special that nobel prize winner Krugman called it a German miracle and is this sustainable? Is it its strong economic and political institutions, in particular trade unions, which by international comparison are a solid rock in turbulent waters, its vocational training which guarantees high skilled labour and low youth unemployment, its social partnership agreements which showed large flexibility of working time arrangements during the crisis and turned the rock into a bamboo flexibly bending once the rough wind of globalization was blowing? Or was it simply luck, booming exports to China and the East, a shrinking population, or worse so, a demolition of the German welfare state? All along from miracle to fate to shame of the German model: Is there such a thing like a core of Germany? The debate on the German model is controversial within Germany. But what do neighbours think about Germany? The Nordic countries want to copy German labor market institutions. The Western countries admire it for its high flexibility within stable institutions, the Austrians have a similar model but question Germany's welfare arrangements and growth capacities. Many Eastern European countries are relatively silent about the German model. There is admiration for the German economic success, but at the same time not so much for its institutions and certainly not for its restrictive migration policy. The Southern countries see it as a preposterous pain to Europe by shaping EU policy a la Germany and forcing austerity policy at the costs of its neighbours. Can the German model be copied? And what do neighbours recommend Germany to do?
Download or read book The future of economic governance in the EU written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: European Union Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The banking crisis in 2008 triggered a crisis of confidence in the financial health of Member States of the euro area. The effect of the crisis across the EU demonstrated the interconnection between the banking sector and public finances. In response the European Commission has put forward a series of legislative proposals that would monitor and coordinate more closely economic policies between Member States. The proposals focus on two elements: fiscal discipline and macroeconomic stability. This report says that attempts to keep the euro area stable will fail unless EU Member States stick to the rules. The Committee is sceptical that Member States will sustain the necessary political will to do so. It says that controversial proposals for a Pact for the Euro risk developing a 'two-speed' Europe, creating a significant distinction in the single market between those states inside the pact and those outside. It warns that reassurances by the UK and several other Member States that the private sector would sustain no losses on sovereign debt issued before 2013 might prove too heavy a burden for taxpayers in countries such as Greece and Ireland to sustain. The Committee recommends that the private sector share the burden of restructuring sovereign debt after the new permanent crisis mechanism comes into force after 2013. The Committee warns that proposals to monitor and correct macroeconomic imbalances must not result in corrective recommendations being issued which could hurt Member States' global competitiveness. This is particularly true for those countries with a current account surplus
Download or read book Why Minsky Matters written by L Randall Wray and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps no economist was more vindicated by the global financial crisis than Hyman P. Minsky (1919–96). Although a handful of economists raised alarms as early as 2000, Minsky's warnings began a half-century earlier, with writings that set out a compelling theory of financial instability. Yet even today he remains largely outside mainstream economics; few people have a good grasp of his writings, and fewer still understand their full importance. Why Minsky Matters makes the maverick economist’s critically valuable insights accessible to general readers for the first time. L. Randall Wray shows that by understanding Minsky we will not only see the next crisis coming but we might be able to act quickly enough to prevent it. As Wray explains, Minsky’s most important idea is that "stability is destabilizing": to the degree that the economy achieves what looks to be robust and stable growth, it is setting up the conditions in which a crash becomes ever more likely. Before the financial crisis, mainstream economists pointed to much evidence that the economy was more stable, but their predictions were completely wrong because they disregarded Minsky’s insight. Wray also introduces Minsky’s significant work on money and banking, poverty and unemployment, and the evolution of capitalism, as well as his proposals for reforming the financial system and promoting economic stability. A much-needed introduction to an economist whose ideas are more relevant than ever, Why Minsky Matters is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why economic crises are becoming more frequent and severe—and what we can do about it.
Download or read book Crisis in the European Monetary Union written by Giuseppe Celi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-22 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of economic integration and EU enlargement, the economic geography of Europe has shifted, with new peripheries emerging and the core showing signs of fragmentation. This book examines the paths of the core and peripheral countries, with a focus on their diverse productive capabilities and their interdependence. Crisis in the European Monetary Union: A Core-Periphery Perspective provides a new framework for analysing the economic crisis that has shaken the Eurozone countries. Its analysis goes beyond the short-term, to study the medium and long-term relations between ‘core’ countries (particularly Germany) and Southern European ‘peripheral’ countries. The authors argue that long-term sustainability means assigning the state a key role in guiding investment, which in turn implies industrial policies geared towards diversifying, innovating and strengthening the economic structures of peripheral countries to help them thrive. Offering a fresh angle on the European crisis, this volume will appeal to students, academics and policymakers interested in the past, present and future construction of Europe.
Download or read book MACROECONOMICS BEYOND THE NAIRU written by Servaas Storm and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-02 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors make a strong case that a stable non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), independent of macroeconomic policy, does not exist. Consequently, government decisions based on the NAIRU are not only misguided but have huge and avoidable social costs, namely, high unemployment and sustained inequality.
Download or read book Italy and Germany Incompatible Varieties of Europe written by Ton Notermans and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-04-27 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can Italy and Germany thrive within the confines of the common currency, or do they display two fundamentally incompatible models? This book examines this question by means of detailed comparisons in the fields of labour market policies, welfare provisions and financial and economic management, since the onset of the financial crisis and through the euro and COVID-19 crises. The rapid succession of the financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis and COVID-19 have again brought to the fore questions that have beset European integration since its inception; does the EU promote convergence or divergence? Have these crises served to reveal pre-existing politico-economic incompatibilities or were these incompatibilities created by the euro and the measures propounded by the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)? Should EMU recipes be followed, or should they be fundamentally revised in an effort to come good on the convergence promises underpinning the European project? And, lastly, is the COVID-19 crisis likely to mitigate or exacerbate these problems? These questions are addressed in this volume by means of a tight comparison between Germany and Italy, two countries that have displayed strikingly divergent trajectories but also share many more politico-economic traits than the conventional wisdom would allow for. By exploring in detail how the main elements of the euro and EMU management have played out, the volume highlights the externalities that becoming part of a currency union has created and that strengthened the economic success of one while consolidating the decline of the other and analyses the likely impact of the measures introduced to fight the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, German Politics.
Download or read book Macroeconomic Imbalances Belgium written by European Commission. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 14 February 2012, the European Commission presented its first Alert Mechanism Report (AMR) in accordance with the Regulation (EU) No. 1176/2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. The AMR serves as an initial screening device to identify Member States that warrant further in depth analysis into whether imbalances exist or risk emerging. According to Article 5 of Regulation No. 1176/2011, these country-specific ?in-depth reviews? should examine the nature, origin and severity of macroeconomic developments in the Member State concerned, which constitute, or could lead to, imbalances. On the basis of this analysis, the Commission concludes whether it considers that an imbalance exists or not, and if so whether it is excessive or not, and what type of follow-up it will recommend to the Council to address to the Member State. This in-depth review concludes that Belgium is experiencing macroeconomic imbalances, which are not excessive but need to be addressed. In particular, macroeconomic developments in the areas of external competitiveness of goods and indebtedness, especially concerning the high level of public debt, deserve further attention so as to reduce the risk of adverse effects on the functioning of the economy.
Download or read book Work Inequalities in the Crisis written by Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Who are the losers and the occasional winners in the current economic crisis? How have employers responded to the slump in economic growth? What lessons can be learned both from their and government labour policies? Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead, and a team of leading researchers address these questions applying the latest data and research including company case studies from across Europe, including Turkey and the transition economies. They observe some similarities, but also enormous differences. They find novel answers as the policies developed over the past two decades to foster greater flexibility have altered the way firms respond to market changes. Are all these changes socially desirable? The authors are to be congratulated for providing such a detailed panorama and frank assessment which will be of value to both academic and policy readers.' David Marsden, London School of Economics, UK 'Since the successive crises erupted the increase in inequality has not been addressed. This important publication offers a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the workplace. It will help to promote a different policy agenda that is desperately needed to overcome the causes and consequences of the crisis, namely addressing work inequalities.' Philippe Pochet, Catholic University of Louvain la Neuve, Belgium, and General Director of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Brussels, Belgium Work Inequalities in the Crisis provides an in-depth overview of the effects of the crisis on inequalities in the world of work. It examines these inequalities multi-dimensionally, looking at employment, wages and incomes, working conditions and social dialogue. At the same time, it investigates whether the crisis may halt the progress made in Europe towards better quality jobs and working conditions. This book offers a unique combination of research, case studies and policy discussions. An assessment of national trends in 30 European countries precedes case studies of 14 of them, in which noted European specialists report on individual enterprises or sectors. The volume's survey of national- and local-level policy solutions contributes to identifying those responses that strengthen economic competitiveness, preserve social cohesion and do not deepen inequalities. This timely resource will be of particular interest to academics, students and researchers in labour economics, to policymakers, and to those involved in European studies more generally.
Download or read book Post Keynesian Views of the Crisis and its Remedies written by Óscar Dejuán and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the 20th century, mainstream economics was based on theories which viewed capitalism as a self-regulating system, whereby crises come about due to external shocks and would be automatically corrected by the price mechanism if it was flexible enough. Post-Keynesian economists, however, consider that the business cycle and the crises are endogenously generated. They recommend active policies as a response, though the remedies may be worse than the illness if they are not applied at the right moment and in the right proportions. The first great recession of the 21st century offers post-Keynesian economists an opportunity to prove the realism of their models. It is also a chance to make theoretical improvements, to abandon some hypotheses and to introduce new ones. This book, from a top group of international economists, analyzes the causes, consequences and evolution of the crisis from a variety of post-Keynesian perspectives. It then presents a case for realistic and essential remedies. The book is both theoretical and applied, with a global reach and a particular focus on the European debt crisis.
