The current globalization process contrasts with the first globalization, in the second half of the XIXth century, with respect to international flows of production factors and to monetary arrangements: during the first globalization, Great Britain, the then dominant power, was a high saving,...

Various attempts have been made recently at explaining why productivity differences persist between rich and poor countries, and why some countries diverge from the world technology frontier in terms of their per capita GDP levels or growth rates, while other countries manage to catch up with...

Public policies aimed at promoting gender equality should not be elaborated without making sure that their goals are consistent. Among a number of factors, such policies must crucially take into account labour market conditions and social protection dynamics. This paper deals with the importance...

The main purpose of this paper is to understand the course of macroeconomic policy in Europe in the light of several theories which have shown that it was barely adapted to the different shocks that have hinted the European economy in the last two decades. As a result, the performance of the EU...

Changes in the pattern of international trade inevitably create distortions that perturb the functioning of the economy. These distortions may not be reduced to malfunctioning goods or labour markets, and hence cannot be eliminated by simply choosing the optimal institutions. Domestic...

Environmental policy is an art of execution. Hence the fact that European Union member states have recently managed to agree on targets of emissions to fight climate change leaves open the question of how they will meet them. Economics can not but embrace the scientific consensus on climate...

Some papers, for reasons which remain partially obscure, leave a persistent trace in intellectual history. Such is the case with Keynes? « Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren » and its central questioning: Could the very functioning of the capitalist system lead to the solution of...

The recently established European Globalization Fund (EGF) is an attempt to better share the benefits of globalisation at the EU-level, targeting workers who loose their job due to trade-induced mass lay-offs. We find that the typical income shock for trade displaced workers is a serious one....

This article is a revised version of the lecture Edmund S. Phelps delivered in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, 2006, when he received the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The modern economy, where fully adopted, has been transformative for nations ? but...

Competition among firms as well as among countries is one of the main innovation engines. In this perspective, growth policy should be understood as the formulation and enactment of the rules that assure full competition. However, things are much more complex in reality. Innovation is a creative...