Archivi categoria: News

The Covid crisis is a serious threat for the environment
24 giugno 2020 - Alessandro Faini, Lorenzo Scalzitti and Luca Poggi

Among the disastrous consequences of the Coronavirus, many people joyfully praised the reduction in CO2 emissions as a turning point in the fight for the environment. If we look at the past, unfortunately, they could be getting things very wrong.

Air pollution is one of the major causes of death all over the world: every year, more than four and a half million people die for causes directly related to poor air quality [1]. However, policymakers around the globe did not succeed to tackle the issue effectively.

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Part IV: SURVIVING UNTIL THE NEXT CENTURY vs. FRIDAY NIGHT
1 giugno 2020 - Emanuele Ciamarone

Politicians are said to care only about fighting to survive until the Friday prior to elections. Economists and governors, instead, are supposed to care about the economic cycle and the survival of an entire country. I have already exemplified this point when talking about sovereigns’ crisis. The fact that politicians’ behaviour is selfish is arguable, but that it brings detrimental effects is a statement, demonstrated by history.

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Salvare un matrimonio in crisi
3 maggio 2020 - Federico Bindi

L’eurozona, di recente, non è stata un matrimonio felice. A partire dalla crisi dei debiti sovrani del 2012, quando ci si rese conto che forse forse una valuta comune per un area economica eccessivamente eterogenea non era una grande idea (come previsto da Robert Mundell tempo addietro https://www.money.it/Che-cos-e-un-area-valutaria) le tensioni tra i partner si fecero palpabili, e lo sono tuttora.

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A brief history of eurobonds – part III
28 aprile 2020 - Emanuele Ciamarone

‘Eurobonds’ are securities denominated in a foreign (respect to the country of issuing) currency. Then, why everybody is so concerned, especially now days, about something that exist since 1963 – when Autostrade issued in Italy for the first time 60.000 bonds denominated in U.S. Dollar? Well, the ‘Eurobond’ we are talking about is also called ‘stability bond’, a government’s bond, denominated in euro, issued jointly by eurozone states. Again, ‘what’s the point?’, we all know sovereign is issued also, if not primary, through traded securities. The point here is what is underlying the issues of common government securities, i.e. interest rates and collaterals.

In this series of articles, we will explain what Eurobonds are, why there are so many concerns around them and if they could be developed someday soon. In particular, we will go through European peculiarities and we will analyse all viable options to face extreme conditions as it is for COVID-19.

Someone tried to bribe Germany

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The ESM debate: economics and democracy
24 aprile 2020 - Davide Botticchio

Among the intense debate about the European Stability Mechanism, some economists claim that under the ESM conditionalities Italy would finally implement the structural reforms it needs to enhance its productivity and competitiveness. Although economists have asked these measures for years, politicians have been too populist and selfish to endanger their popularity and approve unpopular policies in the short-term, but that would strengthen Italian economy in the long-term. This view is widely shared inside economics departments, also among many students. Despite its diffusion, this claim is wrong because it implies that economics oversteps its boundaries by imposing political decisions in an authoritarian way. In this article I explain my view after having briefly discussed the features of ESM and its effectiveness (when I talk about ESM borrowings I do not mention the unconditional borrowings up to 2% of GDP approved during the last Eurogroup).

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National Appeal – Rethinking Economics Italia
23 aprile 2020 - rethinkecon

The Covid-19 crisis highlights the unescapable weaknesses of the grounds of the European project. History is calling us, asking for inevitable changes for a better future, leaving behind what has already been proved not to work.
For this reason, we propose some measures which face the inconsistencies of the institutional and economic system of the European Union, both for the most effective response to the emergency and for a medium-long run horizon.

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Appello Nazionale – Rethinking Economics Italia
22 aprile 2020 - rethinkecon

La crisi innescata dal virus Covid-19 ha messo in risalto le debolezze strutturali della costruzione del progetto europeo. La portata storica di questo avvenimento ci pone davanti ad inevitabili cambiamenti che occorre governare e indirizzare con forza, cogliendo l’occasione di lasciarsi alle spalle ciò che già da prima aveva dimostrato di non funzionare.
Le proposte che avanziamo intendono far fronte alle carenze del sistema economico-istituzionale europeo sia per un’efficace gestione dell’emergenza sia per una sua trasformazione nel medio-lungo periodo.

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