I summarize the main results and policy insights from the 2011 EIB Conference on “Productivity and Long-Term Growth Potential in Europe”. Europe’s need for productivity growth has become more pressing against the backdrop of huge government debt and a beginning slowdown in labour supply....

Volume 13 of the EIB Papers contains the results of the 2008 EIB Conference on "Infrastructure investment, growth and cohesion". Issue 1 discusses the volume, composition, determinants and growth effects of government and infrastructure investment and highlights the economic cost of funds and...

Hedging strategies for commodity prices largely rely on dynamic models to compute optimal hedge ratios. This paper illustrates the importance of considering the commodity inventory effect (effect by which the commodity price volatility increases more after a positive shock than after a negative...

This paper observes that de-industrialisation has been mostly relative in Europe, with industrial value added and employment shrinking in relative terms, but industrial value added growing in absolute terms – at least until recently. Qualitatively, this relative de-industrialisation has been...

Highlighting the revival of industrial-policy thinking in an era of globalisation and disenchantment with free trade, this paper reviews alternative and, in part, competing theoretical foundations of industrial policy: neoclassical foundations, structuralist approaches, and pragmatic approaches...

The main purpose of this paper is to preview the other contributions to this volume of the EIB Papers. In this context, it offers a few additional perspectives. One highlights why energy issues have re-emerged as a matter of policy interest. Another concerns the difference between the...

The paper critiques current European energy policy. The key market failures are identified and the reasons for intervention set out. In addition to the traditional concerns with monopoly and market failures, the public goods aspects of diversity and security of supply, together with...

Countries thus far realise their energy security predominantly with energy policies (e.g., diversifying the energy mix and suppliers) and their energy security risk instruments mostly address the risk of shortterm supply disruptions. Lack of commercially viable sustainable energies and a renewed...