Alan Ahearne and Jürgen von Hagen explore the options European policy makers have in the context of global current account imbalances. Some Europeans are concerned that a disproportionately large burden of adjustment will fall on Europe when the European economy is not flexible enough to cope...

This report surveys the economic performance of the euro area and gives recommendations about six policy challenges of major importance for the future of EMU.

This Bruegel Blueprint argues that Europe should take the lead in defining a solution to the problem of excessive public debts and create a European Crisis Resolution Mechanism (ECRM).The authors, Francois Gianviti, Anne O. Krueger, Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and Jürgen von Hagen, present...

Alan Ahearne and Jürgen von Hagen examine one of the most alarming global economic developments in recent years- the evolution of global current account imbalances and its implications for European policy.

This Policy Brief was adapted from a paper written by the three authors and presented by Bruegel Director Jean Pisani-Ferry at the informal ECOFIN Council meetings in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 1 Oct. In the brief, the authors argue that bank recapitalisation and restructuring should be a matter of...

Senior Non-Resident Fellow Jürgen von Hagen offers his recommendations for the proper monetary policy to lead the eurozone out of the crisis. He argues that the tentative recovery in the euro area indicates that both monetary and fiscal policy can be normalised soon. However, because delaying...

In response to the financial and economic crisis, central banks, unlike in the 1930s, have created enormous amounts of money. There are fears that this will lead to inflation, but it is base money (the central bank's liabilities) that has expanded; total monetary aggregates have not. By contrast,...

We study the channels of interstate risk sharing in Germany for the time period 1970 to 2006 following the methodology of Asdrubali et al. (1996). Their framework allows us to estimate the degree of smoothing of a shock to a state's gross domestic product by factor markets, the government...

There is a general consensus that monetary stability in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) requires sustainable public finances of the member states. But how can a sufficient degree of budgetary discipline be maintained in Stage three of EMU?To answer this question, this study provides an...

The formation of the European Convention leads to revisit the ends and the principles of the European Union. This articles confronts insights from the economic theory of federalism and lessons from the history of European integration. It points out significant convergence between the normative...