The onset of the financial crisis in 2008 has highlighted the problems of diverging external imbalances within Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the role of persistent losses in competitiveness. This paper starts by investigating some of the competitiveness factors which contributed to...

Die Arbeitskosten in der privaten Wirtschaft sind in Deutschland 2010 lediglich um 0,6 Prozent gestiegen. Im Durchschnitt der EU-Länder nahmen die Arbeitskosten hingegen um moderate 1,7 Prozent und im Mittel des Euroraums um 1,6 Prozent zu. Damit hat sich in einem Jahr mit starkem...

In 2010, hourly labour costs in the German private sector increased by only 0.6 per cent. In contrast, the average increases of the EU countries and the countries in the euro-zone were 1.7 and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Thus, even in a year with strong economic growth in Germany, the long term...

The report focuses on the relative macroeconomic performance since the global financial crisis of six Northern European countries with a special emphasis on Finland. While fiscal and monetary policies have definitely impacted on macroeconomic outcomes in the six countries examined, as a whole...

Das IMK analysiert seit Jahren regelmäßig anhand von Eurostat-Daten die Entwicklung der Arbeitskosten und der Lohnstückkosten in Europa. In diesem Report wird zuerst die Entwicklung der Arbeitskosten in der Privatwirtschaft, im privaten Dienstleistungssektor und im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe in...

Five years after the first tremors in Europe's banking system, what makes the crisis unique is the absence of a democratically accountable decision-making framework; there is an 'executive deficit' that compounds Europe's democratic deficit. The author argues that the only way to resolve the...