EconPol Europe Annual Conference 2021

Richard Collier is a qualified lawyer and chartered accountant, and a former partner at PwC. He has been very closely involved with the work of the OECD since the late 1990s and was especially active in the BEPS project. In 2019 he was appointed on secondment as a senior tax adviser to the OECD to manage the work on Pillar 1 of the OECD’s work on taxation of the digitalised economy. He has worked on a wide range of research projects for CBT, especially on tax treaties and transfer pricing, the implications of the BEPS project and more fundamental reform. In 2017 the Oxford University Press published his book, co-authored with Joe Andrus, Transfer Pricing and the Arm’s Length Principle After BEPS. His most recent book, Banking on Failure, has just been published, again by Oxford University Press. Richard also teaches on the MSc in Taxation at the Oxford Law Faculty.

Presentation: Comparing proposals to tax some profit in the market country

14 October

Panel 2 – International Taxation: Pillar 1 - Introduction of the Destination Principle

Alexandre Ounnas is a Researcher in the Job and Skills Unit at CEPS. He is an expert in empirical and theoretical analysis of the labor market. His main research interests include the effects of structural changes, such as automation or demographic changes, on the dynamics of the labor market. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Université Catholique de Louvain and a Master’s degree magna cum laude in Econometrics from Université Catholique de Louvain. In his dissertation, he presents a study of gross worker flows by occupations in the U.S. and their effects on unemployment and labor force participation fluctuations. Alexandre was part of the “Service d’Analyse Economique” (IRES Université Catholique de Louvain), a service in charge of producing quarterly analysis of short-term economic prospects for Belgium. As part of the team, he developed two models to forecast quarterly GDP growth for Belgium and the eurozone. Alexandre was also involved in a research project forecasting quarterly GDP growth for the Belgian region of Wallonia.

Research: Labor Market Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis in the United States and Europe

Presentation: Labour Market Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in the U.S. and Europe 

13 October

Plenary Session: Governance and Macroeconomic Policy in the European Monetary Union

Olivier Blanchard is the C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A citizen of France, Blanchard has spent most of his professional life in the United States. After obtaining his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977, he taught at Harvard University, and returned to MIT in 1982. He was chair of the economics department from 1998 to 2003. In 2008, he took a leave of absence to be the Econom-ic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund where he stayed until 2015. He then joined the Peterson Institute for Interna-tional Economics.  Dr Blanchard is a macroeconomist, who has worked on a wide set of issues, from the role of monetary and fiscal policy, to the nature of speculative bubbles, to the nature of the labor market and the determinants of unemployment, to transition in former communist countries, to the nature of the Great Financial Cri-sis. In the process, he has worked with numerous countries and international organ-izations. He is the author of many books and articles, including two textbooks in macroeconomics, one at the graduate level with Stanley Fischer, one at the under-graduate level. He is a fellow and former Council member of the Econometric Socie-ty, a past president of the American Economic Association, and a member of the American Academy of Sciences.

Presentation: Fiscal Policy Under Low Rates

13 October

Opening Keynote: Fiscal Policy Under Low Rates

Sebastian Blesse is a researcher in the ZEW Research Department “Corporate Taxation and Public Finance”. He completed his PhD in 2020 at the University of Frankfurt after obtaining a master’s and bachelor’s degree in economics at the universities of Göttingen and Magdeburg. In 2018, he was on a research stay at VATT in Helsinki. His research interests lie in public finance, political economy and applied econometrics. In addition, within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 884 "The Political Economy of Reforms", he studies the decision-making behavior of political decision-makers.

14 October

Panel 1: Attitudes and Perceptions

Professor Michael Devereux is Professor of Business Taxation at the Said Business School in the University of Oxford, a professorial fellow of Oriel College Oxford, and a co-director of the MSc in Taxation in the Oxford Law Faculty. He has recently stepped down as Associate Dean of the School. He is an economist who previously held prof-essorial positions at the Universities of Keele and Warwick and has also been a pro-gramme director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He was the President of the Inter-national Institute for Public Finance until 2015 and is currently an Honorary Presi-dent. He is Research Director of the European Tax Policy Forum and a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Tax Policy Forum. He is also an Honorary Fel-low of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and Research Fellow of IFS, CEPR and CE-Sifo. He has written widely on business taxation in academic and professional jour-nals and has edited Fiscal Studies and International Tax and Public Finance. He is currently ranked by REPEC as sixth in the world amongst economics researchers in the field of Public Finance, and first amongst researchers outside the United States.

14 October

Panel 3 – International Taxation: Pillar 2 - The End of the Race to the Bottom?

Antonia Díaz is a full Professor of Economics at the Carlos III University of Madrid. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota. Her research covers topics related to wealth and income distribution with a special focus on housing. She is also interested in growth and misallocation, as well as in the sustainability of energy, innovation, and growth.

Research: CO2 Emissions and Energy Technologies in Western Europe

Presentation: CO2 Emissions and Energy Technologies in Western Europe

14 October

Panel 4: Public Policy for a Green Transition

Dirk Foremny is an Associate Professor at the UB School of Economics at the University of Barcelona and he is affiliated with the Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (I.E.B.) and the CESifo in Munich. Mr Foremny works in the area of Public Economics, with a focus on applied research in Public Finance. He currently studies the effects of taxation on (internal) migration, tax evasion and income shifting, fiscal capacity of governments, and what shapes preferences for redistribution.

Research: Living at the Peak: Health and Public Finance during the Covid-19 Pandemic

14 October

Panel 1: Attitudes and Perceptions

Clemens Fuest has been President of the ifo Institute since April 2016. He is also Managing Director of CESifo GmbH, Professor of Economics at LMU Munich and Director of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) at LMU Munich. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Finance (Chairman from 2007 to 2010), Programme Director of the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, member of the European Academy of Sciences and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Ernst & Young GmbH. He was also a member of the EU High Level Group on Own Resources and of the Minimum Wage Commission of the German Government. His research areas are public finances, public debt and taxes. Before his appointment to Munich, he was a professor at the Universities of Cologne (2001-2008), Oxford (2008-2013) and Mannheim (2013-2016).

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe

Daniel Gros serves as advisor to the European Parliament and was a member of the advisory scientific committee of the European Systemic Risk Board and the Euro 50 Group of eminent economists. He received a Fulbright Scholarship 2019/20 at the University of California, Berkeley. He has held positions at the IMF, the European Commission, and served as advisor to several governments. From 2000 to 2020 Daniel has been the Director of CEPS. He is editor of Economie Internationale and International Finance and the author of several books and numerous articles in scientific journals. His main areas of expertise are the European monetary union, macroeconomic policy, public finance, banking, and financial markets. Gros holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Paper: The Dangers of High Public Debt in an Uncertain World

Presentation: The Dangers of High Public Debt in an Uncertain World

13 October

Keynote: The Dangers of High Public Debt in an Uncertain World 

Tibor Hanappi is an economist specialised in international business taxation with experience in tax policy analysis for national authorities, research institutions, international organisations and private clients. At the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration since January 2015, he has been working directly with the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) including on BEPS Action 11, the Interim Report on the Tax Challenges arising from Digitalisation and the Economic Impact Assessment of the Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals. Prior to joining the OECD, Tibor led a research team at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna (IHS) and worked at the research departments of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva and the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in economics from University of Vienna and a Ph.D. in economics from University of Linz as well as a B.A. in East Asian Studies from University of Vienna.

Research: OECD’s Economic Impact Assessment of Pillar 2

14 October

Panel 3 – International Taxation: Pillar 2 - The End of the Race to the Bottom?

Marko Köthenbürger is a professor of economics at ETH Zurich to which he moved in 2012 after holding positions at the University of Bern, Copenhagen, Munich and Vienna. He is a CESifo research fellow, a research associate at the Norwegian Center for Taxation (NoCeT) and at the European Policy Research Unit (EPRU). He is editor of the journal “Economics of Governance” and is an associate editor of the journal “International Tax and Public Finance” and “Nordic Tax Journal”. His research deals with issues of public economics in general and of fiscal federalism and taxation in particular. His publications appeared in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Urban Economics and Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, among others.

14 October

Panel 2 – International Taxation: Pillar 1 - Introduction of the Destination Principle

Marita Laukkanen is chief researcher and research leader at the VATT Institute for Economic Research and adjunct professor of economics at the University of Helsinki. She holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and has international work experience from the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei research centre in Italy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Toulouse School of Economics. In 2016-2019 Marita was a member of the Finnish Climate Change Panel. Marita’s research field includes environmental and energy matters. In particular, she has studied cost-effective instruments, evaluation of environmental policy and international environmental co-operation. Marita’s ongoing research deals with the changes to the energy system required by the move to a low-carbon society, the effects of energy taxation and the functioning of international environmental agreements. Alongside her research work, Marita aims to promote dialogue between science and politics in energy and environmental matters.

14 October

Panel 4 – Public Policy for a Green Transition

Ted Loch-Temzelides, Ph.D., is the George and Cynthia Mitchell Professor in Sustainable Development at the Department of Economics and a James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Center for Energy Studies Scholar at Rice University. He has taught and given keynote and research seminars at numerous universities and conferences around the world. He has worked and consulted for several institutions, including the Central Bank of Portugal, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. He conducts interdisciplinary research on the economics of emerging infectious diseases. He has also studied climate economics and the energy transition, biological markets, conservation, and resilience. His current focus is in modeling and quantifying the economic and health consequences resulting from climate change, pollution, deforestation, and zoonotic pathogen transmission. 

Research: Scrapping, Renewable Technology Adoption, and Growth

14 October

Panel 4: Public Policy for a Green Transition

Danny McCoy is Chief Executive Officer of Ibec since 2009. Ibec is Ireland’s largest business representative organisation and the country’s largest lobbying group.Prior to joining Ibec, Danny was a senior economist at both the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Central Bank of Ireland in Dublin. He has held lecturing posts at Dublin City University, University College London, University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. He has been a consultant for the European Commission and the OECD. He has been a member of the Irish National Competitiveness Council, the National Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Taxation and the National Training Agency. He led a European Macroeconomic Forecasting Network for the European Commission of eleven national research institutes. Danny McCoy is currently President of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Engineers, Board member of MaREI and member of the Export Trade Council, Executive Bureau of BusinessEurope, SME Forum and Government’s Balance for Better Business Group.

14 October

Panel 3 – International Taxation: Pillar 2 - The End of the Race to the Bottom?

Florian Neumeier is head of the Research Group Taxation and Fiscal Policy at ifo Institute in Munich. His research focuses on international corporate taxation, tax competition, and tax harmonization. He has prepared numerous expert reports for the German government on the reform of the national and international corporate tax system.

Presentation: The Impact of Pillar 1 on Tax Revenues in Germany

14 October

Panel 2 – International Taxation: Pillar 1 - Introduction of the Destination Principle

Debora Revoltella is Director of the Economics Department of the European Investment Bank, serving as Chief Economist. Since her arrival at the EIB in 2011, Debora Revoltella has designed and led the work for flagship publications such as the EIB Investment Report. She launched the idea and led the process for the design and implementation of the EIB Investment Survey, a new survey covering 12,500 European firms which has become a unique asset in terms of understanding investment dynamics in Europe. Debora Revoltella holds a degree in Economics and a Master in Economics from Bocconi University as well as a PhD in Economics from the University of Ancona in Italy. Debora Revoltella is member of the Steering Committees of the Vienna Initiative and the CompNet, an alternate member of the Board of the Joint Vienna Institute and a member of the Boards of the SUERF and the Euro 50 Group.

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe

Claudia Sahm is founder of Stay-at-Home Macro (SAHM) Consulting. She is a regular opinion writer at Bloomberg. She has policy and research expertise on consumer spending, fiscal stimulus, and the financial well-being of households. She is the author of the “Sahm Rule,” a reliable early signal of recessions that she developed as a way to automatically trigger stimulus payments to individuals in a recession. Previously, she was a section chief in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where she oversaw the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Before that she worked for ten years in the Division of Research and Statistics on the staff’s macroeconomic forecast. She was a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in 2015-2016. Sahm holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan (2007), and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, and German from Denison University (1998).

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe

Maithreyi Seetharaman is a London-based international journalist, communicator and entrepreneur with almost two decades of global media experience. She founded Facultas Media Limited in 2013 and has been designing and creating content for clients across the world. She most recently directed Fortune Magazine’s Live Media Content as Co-Chair of Fortune Most Powerful Women International, Fortune Global Forum and Brainstorm Design. She has also created and hosted as Anchor and Executive Editor, five seasons of Euronews’ flagship economic show, Real Economy. And as launch advisor, designed and created the network’s award-winning flagship Middle East show, based in Abu Dhabi, ‘Inspire Middle East’. 

Previously, Ms Seetharaman was co-host of CNBC Europe’s Squawk Box Europe and Capital Connection. She has also been and anchor and stocks editor for Bloomberg Television in London and New York. Before joining Bloomberg, she was a prime time anchor for CNBC TV18 in India and a reporter for the Indian national financial daily 'The Financial Express'. She also served on the Advisory Board Member of Docusign, Ms Seetharaman holds a Master’s in international relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University, New York, and a Master’s in Journalism from Bond University, Australia.

Host, 13 October

Martin Simmler is a Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation. His research interest is in applied public economics, in particular the impact of taxation and public good provision on firm behaviour. Martin holds a PhD from the Free University Berlin.  Before starting his PhD, he worked as a tax policy consultant. Martin has written several policy reports and his work has been published in the Journal of Public Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics and Research Policy among others.

14 October

Panel 2 – International Taxation: Pillar 1
Panel 3 – International Taxation: Pillar 2

Beau Soederhuizen is an Economist at CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, a think-tank of the Dutch government, and a lecturer at Nyenrode Business University. He holds a PhD in macroeconomics from Nyenrode Business University in 2018. In his dissertation, he investigated the implications of monetary- and macroeconomic policies in a monetary union and fiscal multipliers at the zero lower bound.

Beau Soederhuizen joined CPB’s macroeconomic analysis department in 2018. His research focuses on macro-finance related topics. Examples of topics covered in CPB projects include financial cycles and fiscal multipliers, and macro- and monetary policies in a monetary union. Furthermore, he has collaborated with his colleagues on the CPB’s annual Financial Risk Report, which provides an overview of the financial risks to the real economy stemming from the financial sector.

Paper: Optimal Capital Ratios for Banks in the Euro Area

Presentation: Optimal Capital Ratios for Banks in the Euro Area

13 October

Plenary Session: Governance and Macroeconomic Policy in the European Monetary Union

Maarten Verwey has been Director General of DG Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission since February 2020. Maarten Verwey started his career in the European Commission in 2011 as deputy Director General for Economic and Financial Affairs. In 2015 he became Director General of the Structural Reform Sup-port Service (now DG REFORM). He has been Director General for Economic and Fi-nancial Affairs since 1 February 2020. Before coming to the Commission, he was di-rector of foreign financial relations in the Dutch Ministry of Finance.  In these various capacities, he played a key role in several important European initiatives. These in-clude the creation of the EFSF and the ESM, the adjustment programme for Cyprus, the creation of banking union and the investment plan for Europe (Juncker plan) and most recently Next Generation EU.

13 October

Panel Discussion: Fiscal Policy for the Post-Covid Era: US versus Europe
 

Klaus Weyerstrass is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna, Austria, in the research group “Macroeconomics and Business Cycles”. He obtained his Master’s degree in economics from the University of Osnabrück (Ger-many), and his PhD as well as the venia docendi (“Habilitation”) from the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). His main research interests are business cycle analysis and forecasting, productivity analyses, fiscal policy, European economic integration, and macroeconometric modelling. Klaus Weyerstrass is also teaching at the Vienna Uni-versity of Economics and Business and at the Central European University in Vienna.

Presentation: Fiscal Policies in the Corona Crisis – a Macroeconomic Assessment

13 October

Plenary Session: Governance and Macroeconomic Policy in the European Monetary Union

Lisa Windsteiger has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich since 2017. Her research interests lie in the fields of Public Economics and Political Economy, as well as Behavioral Economics. In particular, she has worked on (perceptions of) inequality, socio-economic segregation and demand for redistribution, often using survey experiments in her research. She holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematics from the Vienna University of Technology, an MSc in Economics from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

14 October

Panel 1: Attitudes and Perceptions

Bert Zuijdendorp heads the "Company Taxation Initiatives" unit in the European Commission's Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General. He is in charge of EU directives and policy initiatives in the area of corporate taxation. Recent initiatives include the 2016 Anti-Tax Avoidance Package, the relaunch of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, the 2018 proposals in the area of digital taxation, the 2020 Package for Fair and Effective Taxation and the 2021 Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st Century.  Before joining the Commission, Bert Zuijdendorp held various positions in the Dutch Ministry of Finance in both national and international tax policy. 

14 October 

Panel 2 - International Taxation: Pillar 1 - Introduction of the Destination Principle