We study how financial transactions may respond to exogenous variation in trade opportunities not only directly, but also through policy channels. In more open economies, governments may find it more difficult to fund and enforce public policies that substitute private financial transactions,...

We document significant and robust empirical relationships in cross-country panel data between government size or social expenditure on the one hand, and trade and financial development indicators on the other. Across countries, deeper economic integration is associated with more intense...

We analyze the implications of labor market reforms for an open economy’s human capital investment and future production. A stylized model shows that labor market deregulation can imply more positive current account balances if financial markets are imperfect and labor market institutions not...

Chapter 1 of the report discusses the immediate macroeconomic outlook for the global economy, with a particular focus on the European situation. Chapter 2 focuses on Switzerland, and specifically on the lessons that Europe can learn from the Swiss experience in maintaining cohesion while...

This chapter identifies the factors that led to imbalances in the euro area, which resulted in the current balance-of-payments crisis. The chapter also discusses how rebalancing might be achieved, and how fiscal policy could accelerate this process.

This chapter investigates two of the most widely debated aspects of US fiscal and financial integration: (1) the responsibility of the federation for state-level debts and for the creditworthiness of states; and (2) the working of a federal central bank. Today’s fiscal federalism in the United...

This chapter examines the interactions between the different institutional characteristics of labour markets in Europe, and the impact of the current recession on their unemployment structure and dynamics. Section 3.2 sketches the wide variety of unemployment experiences across countries in...

Authors of the Report on the European Economy 2013

Chapter 2: Switzerland: Relic of the Past, Model for the Future? / Learn from the Swiss approach to diversity management. / Embrace pragmatic compromises as a way of laying firm foundations for common institutions and policies. / Adopt both a common legal and regulatory infrastructure, and a...

Chapter 1 of the report discusses the immediate macro economic outlook for the global economy, with a particular focus on the European situation.