We present in this article a summary of our work on the relation between country size and growth strategy. We begin by reviewing the major steps in the literature on the economics of country size, focusing on contemporary contributions, from the Robinson volume (1960) to Alesina and Spolaore?s...

Even though the EU clearly leads the global fight against climate change and despite the additional reduction in emissions due to the global crisis and European recession, the ambitious objectives flagged in the ?20-20-20 by 2020? strategy and ?climate-energy package ? may be out of reach if a...

Exchange rate policy is of primordial economic importance given its impact on price stability, real growth and regional cohesion. In this article, we argue that the euro area thus needs a true exchange rate policy, to which it is entitled by law, but that it finds itself unable to implement for...

Environmental policy is an art of execution. Hence the fact that European Union member states have recently managed to agree on targets of emissions to fight climate change leaves open the question of how they will meet them. Economics can not but embrace the scientific consensus on climate...

This article is a revised version of the lecture Edmund S. Phelps delivered in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, 2006, when he received the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The modern economy, where fully adopted, has been transformative for nations ? but...

Very much like the Lisbon Agenda, the European strategy against climate change suffers from a discrepancy between high ambitions and weak collective instruments. As France takes the EU Presidency in July 2008, one of its priorities is precisely to make some significant progress in reducing the...

Economic performance has been feeble in the Euro area since the monetary union process was put in motion in the early 1990s. While the cause for this under-performance remains subject to debate, we argue in this paper that the rules and institutions governing the Euro area are clearly not...