This article seeks to demonstrate the stability of US-China monetary relations before and after the 2007-09 financial crisis. Domestic and international factors make the disruption of the US-China monetary relation extremely unlikely. On the domestic side, China faces a delicate political...

This paper argues that transparency-boosting measures specifically tailored to commodity and commodity derivatives markets are much needed. In particular, encouraging the creation of a clearing infrastructure for OTC commodity and commodity derivatives markets would be desirable. Moreover, EU...

Credit ratings are a quasi-public good, and investors and financial markets regulators need an independent assessment of the credit-worthiness of an issuing entity because of information asymmetries and principal agent problems. In light of the high volatility of market-based measures and the...

This paper argues that transparency-boosting measures specifically tailored to commodity and commodity derivatives markets are much needed. In particular, encouraging the creation of a clearing infrastructure for OTC commodity and commodity derivatives markets would be desirable. Moreover, EU...

Financial crises precede deep and prolonged recessions. Political leaders face enormous challenges when confronting such dire economic situation, and they frequently have to face the possibility of losing power. In order to avoid this outcome, democratic and autocratic leaders may use war as a...

The targeted increase of renewable energy sources in the European energy mix to 20% by 2020, and the goal of an 80-95% CO2 emissions reduction by 2050, will require changes to and extensions of the electricity grid. The integration of increasing shares of fluctuating renewable electricity,...

The background to this study is the establishment of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), providing decoupled support to farmers, which was the central element of the 2003 CAP reform. The Member States of the EU-15 had to implement the SPS at the latest by 2007. The Member States had some...

This study offers an in-depth economic analysis of the two main proposals for the creation of a European unemployment insurance scheme. One proposes the creation of a harmonised European unemployment benefit scheme that would apply automatically to every eligible unemployed person. The...

One frequently hears the question posed in the title to this report, but there is little systematic analytical literature on the issue. Fragmented evidence or anecdotes dominate debates among EU regulatory decision-makers and in European business, insofar as there is a genuine debate at all....