Newsletter May 2019
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  ECONPOL OPINION    |    POLICY REPORTS    |   POLICY BRIEFS    |     WORKING PAPERS
    ECONPOL EVENTS   |    NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS    |    ABOUT ECONPOL EUROPE
Migration and the Welfare State
In this issue:
  • Register for the first joint CEPS and EconPol lunch debate in Brussels
  • Intra-EU mobility: from too little to too much?
  • Majority voting in taxation
  • The surprising sluggishness of French exports
  • Macroprudential measures and taxation in the housing markets
  • Immigration and electoral support for the far-left and the far-right
  • Taxation and public spending efficiency: an international comparison
  • Upcoming events
  • Plus all the latest news from our partners
This month sees the launch of the first in a regular series of lunch debates jointly hosted by CEPS and EconPol. On Monday 20 May, representatives from both institutions will be joined by policy makers and researchers in Brussels to debate migration and the welfare state.

International migration is at the top of the European political agenda. European labor markets need immigrants. Population aging has already created labor shortages, but immigration also raises concerns about distributional conflicts.

These concerns, sometimes real and sometimes imagined, have played an important role in the rise of populist parties across Europe, and in the Brexit referendum. The aim of this lunchtime seminar is to present an overall assessment on the welfare effects of immigration when both the effects on labor market and public finances are accounted for.

Furthermore, the seminar will analyze an often-overlooked aspect of international migration: emigration from European welfare states and how it can be expected to affect their fiscal and political sustainability.

Registration for this event is essential.

See details and register.
ECONPOL OPINION

Intra-EU mobility: from too little to too much?

Freedom of movement of workers is one of the fundamental ‘four freedoms’ of the European Union and has been in force for decades.  Economists have long considered that labour mobility is too low in EU, but this is changing as more and more EU citizens move to other Member States to work. Cinzia Alcidi and Daniel Gros examine the factors that have driven the growth in intra-EU labour mobility in this latest EconPol opinion.

EconPol opinion 17
 

Majority voting in taxation

The unanimity requirement for EU legislation on taxation in the Council has come under attack. Early this year, the European Commission launched an initiative to introduce majority voting for tax-policy decisions. Friedrich Heinemann analyses the arguments of the Commission and finds criticism unconvincing and misleading in this EconPol opinion.

EconPol opinion 18
 
POLICY REPORTS

The surprising sluggishness of French exports: reviewing competitiveness and its determinants

The large deterioration in France’s current account balance during the euro’s first decade was mainly due to its poor export performances. Although there have been no more market share losses since 2012, French export growth lags behind that of our European partners. This EconPol policy report examines the continuing sluggishness of France’s trade performances over recent years, marked in particular by its surprising inability to make any significant and lasting reduction in the trade deficit or regain back lost market shares.

EconPol policy report 14
 
POLICY BRIEFS

Macroprudential measures and taxation in the housing markets

The recent financial crisis and subsequent global recession have been followed by a wave of macroprudential measures in the housing market. At the same time, governments have a long tradition of conducting tax policies which encourage households to acquire owner-housing. These tax advantages may be at least partly responsible for the need to regulate borrowing. In terms of policy, the goal should be to identify instruments that reduce the negative effects of household leverage while minimizing the welfare costs to households. This EconPol policy brief examines the joint effects of the tax system and credit regulation.

EconPol Policy Brief 17
 
WORKING PAPERS

Immigration and electoral support for the far-left and the far-right

Immigration increases support for far-right political candidates and reduces support for far-left candidates, with areas with low-educated non-European immigrants providing the biggest boost to the far-right. These are the conclusions of a paper released by EconPol Europe. In the paper, forthcoming in the June issue of the European Economic Review, researchers examined to what extent changes in immigration and trade patterns explain voting for far-left and far-right candidates in French presidential elections from 1988 until 2017. They control for the effects of changes in unemployment, education, and demographics.

Press release
EconPol working paper 24
 

Taxation and public spending efficiency: an international comparison

This EconPol paper evaluates the relevance of the taxation for public spending efficiency in a sample of OECD economies in the period 2003-2017. It finds that inputs could be theoretically lower by approximately 32-34%; the Malmquist indices show an overall decrease in technology and in TFP. Crucial for policymaking, the authors find that expenditure efficiency is negatively associated with taxation, more specifically direct and indirect taxes negatively affect government efficiency performance. The same is true for social security contributions.

EconPol working paper 25
 
ECONPOL EVENTS
CEPS-EconPol Lunch Debate
Migration and the Welfare State
20.05.2019 | 13:15 – 14:30, CEPS, Brussels, Belgium
Venice Summer Institute 2019
Taxation in the Digital Economy: Theory and Evidence
03.06.2019 | 9:00 – 14:00, San Servolo, Venice, Italy
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
CEPII newsletter
CEPS latest publications
CERGE-EI latest news
CPB latest publications
IHS publications hub
Instituto Universitario de Economía Universidad Carlos III de Madrid – latest news
KOF Bulletin, January 2019
REM – Research in Economics and Mathematics Newsletter, February 2019
TSE news
Universita di Trento news
University of Oxford (Centre for Business Taxation) news and insights
VATT news
ZEW newsletter, January 2019
ABOUT ECONPOL EUROPE
EconPol Europe is a cross-border voice for research in Europe, providing research-based contributions aimed at promoting growth, prosperity and social cohesion in Europe and, in particular, the European and Monetary Union. Our mission is to contribute our research findings to help solve the pressing economic and fiscal policy issues facing the European Union, and to anchor more deeply the idea of a united Europe within member states.

Our joint interdisciplinary research covers:

    •    sustainable growth and best practice,
    •    reform of EU policies and the EU budget,
    •    capital markets and the regulation of the financial sector and
    •    governance and macroeconomic policy in the European Monetary Union.

If you would like further information about EconPol Europe, please contact Juliet Shaw at shaw@econpol.eu

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© EconPol Europe: European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research – ifo Institute – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich 2019.


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Published: ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich,
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Email: newsletter@econpol.eu;
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