What Are the Priorities of Buraucrats?
 RESEARCH         
What Are the Priorities of Bureaucrats? | How Fast Must Vaccination Campaigns Proceed in Order to Beat Rising Covid-19 Infection Numbers? | 30 Years of Mercosur – Status Quo and Future Integration Steps | Is There a Need for Reverse Mortgages in Germany? Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications.
 EVENTS               
Save the Date: CEPS Ideas Lab – EconPol/Intereconomics Session on Fiscal Stimulus – Lessons from the US to Europe | Reminder: Call for Papers – 9th UECE Conference on Economic and Financial Adjustments
 RESEARCH         
Key priority of German and Finnish public procurement officials is to avoid awarding public contracts to bidders with prior bad performance. This is one result of a collaborative research by Finnish and German research institutes VATT, ZEW, MaCCI, Aalto University, and FCCA. Surveying more than 900 procurement officials the authors observe that bureaucratic decision-making is based to a large extent on intrinsic motivation and a high degree of autonomy with an aversion against (too) rigid regulation.
Faster vaccination programs are vital to win the fight against the new aggressive Coronavirus mutations, a conclusion drawn by Claudius Gros and Daniel Gros in their latest EconPol Policy Brief. The study finds that vaccinating the over 60 years old, which constitute one quarter of the EU population, would reduce the loss of life by 95 percent in the EU. However, EU countries are far from this target.
Thirty years after its foundation, Mercosur’s member countries have little reason to celebrate, according to this EconPol Opinion piece. The transition from a trade agreement to a customs union has failed and deeper integration steps hardly seem feasible. China has overtaken the EU as Mercosur’s most important trading partner, resulting in trade flows shifting away from Europe to the Chinese market. Thus, the EU-Mercosur trade agreement could play an important role – argue Andreas Baur, Lisandra Flach and Feodora Teti.
Reverse mortgages are a common instrument used by homeowners in the UK and in the USA to build up capital for old-age provision. However, in Germany this instrument is hardly used. This Policy Report by Florian Bartsch, Florian Buhlmann, Karolin Kirschenmann and Carolin Schmidt estimates that there is an untapped potential for up to 90.000 households in the German market. Stimulating growth of a reverse mortgage market could particularly benefit cash-poor homeowners, decreasing old-age poverty – not only in Germany but also in other European countries.
 EVENTS                
Save the Date: EconPol and Intereconomics will host a session at CEPS Ideas Lab on 3 June 2021, 3.30–5pm (CET) on the topic “Fiscal Stimulus: Lessons from the US to Europe” with Antonia Díaz (Carlos III University of Madrid, EconPol Europe), Daniel Gros (CEPS Brussels, EconPol Europe), Adam Posen (Peterson Institute for International Economics) and Claudia Sahm (Jain Family Institute, formerly Federal Reserve Board). More information.
Call for Papers – The 9th UECE Conference on Economic and Financial Adjustments will be held in Lisbon (on campus and online) on 30 July 2021. Researchers are invited to submit proposals before 25 June. Call for papers and more information.
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