The EU recovery fund – state of play and outlook
The recovery plan gives Europe a chance to emerge stronger from the pandemic, transform the economy and create opportunities and jobs. It is important that those plans are implemented in a manner that is efficient, fair and sustainable.
Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts a conversation between Nadia Calviño, First Vice-President and Minister for Economy and Digitalization of Spain and Karolina Ekholm, Professor in Stockholm University and member of the Bruegel board on the state of play and outlook of the EU recovery fund. Listen in to learn more details on the Spanish programme and the risks and success factors of the recovery programme for the EU as a whole!
Environmental, societal and governance criteria: hit or miss?
Sustainable investing is gaining in popularity as socially conscious clients consider environmental, societal and governance (ESG) criteria when deciding on potential investment. As a result, the financial world is offering more ESG compatible products on the market.
While well intentioned, the ability and capacity of ESG criteria in corporate disclosure to achieve climate and social goals is questionable. Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts a debate between Tariq Fancy, the BlackRock executive turned ESG whistleblower, and Non-resident fellow Rebecca Christie, on whether sustainable investing will make the world a better place, and how it differs between North America and Europe.
For more Bruegel research on sustainable finance, visit: https://www.bruegel.org/tag/sustainable-finance.
For Tariq Fancy’s essay, The Secret Diary of a ‘Sustainable Investor’, visit: https://medium.com/@sosofancy/the-secret-diary-of-a-sustainable-investor-part-1-70b6987fa139
Are robots taking our jobs?
In the future, what forces will cause the economy to grow and stagnate? What impact will AI and automation have on the economy? Is capitalism a sustainable economic model?
Today on The Sound of Economics, we’re asking the big questions. In order to find answers, our own Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Aaron Benanav, recent author of Automation and the Future of Work. Benanav argues that the “rise of the robots” may not really explain future employment crises, or our failure to move into a post-scarcity era.
Meanwhile, Bruegel Research Fellow Laura Nurski adds insight from her own research at Bruegel’s Future of work and inclusive growth project, and Alexis Moraitis at Lancaster University considers how advances in technology could impact the international political economy.
If you want to learn more about the possible robot uprising, check out our work on artificial intelligence in the workplace, or listen to our past podcast, The Skills of the Future.
A fitting plan for the European Green Deal?
On 14 July, the European Commission finally announced a large package of measures that will make the EU the first mover in the race limit global warming, with measures targeting all sectors in a deepening and broadening of the European decarbonisation process.
In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s Director Guntram Wolff and Bruegel Senior fellow Andre Sapir and Simone Tagliapietra walk you through the 13 proposals and hundreds of pages designed to ensure the continent meets the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 55 percent in 2030 and net zero by 2050, compared with 2050 levels. How ambitious are the goals? How should they be distributed among the citizens, businesses and countries of the EU? How stringent should a new carbon border adjustment be?
Recommend readings:
How to make the European Green Deal work (2019), GRÉGORY CLAEYS, SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA AND GEORG ZACHMANN
https://www.bruegel.org/2019/11/how-to-make-the-european-green-deal-work/
Fit for 55 marks Europe’s climate moment of truth (2021), SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA
https://www.bruegel.org/2021/07/fit-for-55-marks-europes-climate-moment-of-truth/
The geopolitics of the European Green Deal (2021), MARK LEONARD, JEREMY SHAPIRO, JEAN PISANI-FERRY, SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA AND GUNTRAM B. WOLFF
https://www.bruegel.org/2021/02/the-geopolitics-of-the-european-green-deal/
How to extend carbon pricing beyond the comfort zone, GEORG ZACHMANN
https://www.bruegel.org/2021/04/how-to-extend-carbon-pricing-beyond-the-comfort-zone/
What should public spending look like?
Here’s what’s clear: public spending is on the rise. Public expenditure ratios have quadrupled since 1870, and increased even more in the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Is that good or bad? What does responsible public spending look like? How should governments institute reforms in order to improve their public spending agendas?
These questions are less clear. Bruegel’s Director, Guntram Wolff, sits down with Former Deputy Secretary-General of OECD, Ludger Schuknecht to discuss the issues surrounding public spending in post-pandemic economies.
CCP's 100th Anniversary: Reflecting and looking forward
This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.
ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!
On July 1st, 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary. Today, Bruegel’s Giuseppe Porcaro speaks with Bruegel Senior Fellow Alicia García-Herrero and Professor Steve Tsang, Director of SOAS China Institute at University of London about the past, present, and future of the Party. What are the Party’s successes and failures? What is the “China model”? Will it ever be exported to other nations? Can the country’s economic success continue?
Restarting the economy?
When COVID-19 struck last spring, European governments rapidly implemented measures to keep businesses afloat. Did those policies support productive firms that bolster the economy? Or, did the policies merely enable the survival of “zombie” firms that ought to have gone bankrupt?
One year into the pandemic, Bruegel Deputy Director Maria Demertzis speaks with professors Steffen Müller, Filippo di Mauro, and Carlo Altomonte about whether or not fiscal policy has been successful throughout the pandemic, and how governments can deftly adapt their measures to revitalize their economies as more people across Europe receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
Relevant event:
The impact of COVID-19 on productivity: preliminary firm evidence with Carlo Altomonte, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Maria Demertzis, Filippo di Mauro and Steffen Müller.
The skills of the future
‘Technological change is revolutionising the workplace’, ‘the future is automated’ and ‘a robot will be doing my work before long’ are phrases we hear a lot when it comes to discussing the impact of technological advancement on the labour market and skills. But what is the real impact of robots or AI on the workforce? And, how can we steer technological change in a direction that is labour-complementing and welfare enhancing? How can governments and businesses help workers to adapt to technological change, through reskilling and transitioning initiatives?
As part of Bruegel’s Future of work and inclusive growth project, Bruegel fellow Laura Nurski and Dimitrios Pikios, ESCO Project coordinator at DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at European Commission joined Giuseppe Porcaro to talk about the risks of automation, deskilling but also the opportunities for new learning that come with technology and what policymakers can do to facilitate this.
Avoiding a requiem for the WTO
The WTO has been ‘missing in action’: how can we restore the organisation’s role as a global forum for cooperation on trade?
[LIVE] A transatlantic climate alliance
President Biden is visiting Brussels for the first time since his inauguration on 14 June, with great expectations by European commentators to forge a closer transatlantic cooperation.
Prior to his visit, Giuseppe Porcaro and Simone Tagliapietra is joined by Ana Palacio, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain to discuss why the two sides of the Atlantic should form a climate alliance, which are the challenges the EU and the US will have to overcome; and most importantly, if this joint cooperation would be enough to leverage the rest of the world.
Relevant publications:
A transatlantic climate alliance, Opinion by Ana Palacio and Simone Tagliapietra