Les années de préparation et d’installation de l’euro ont été des années de croissance faible ou médiocre dans les grands pays de la zone. Cette performance décevante est, souvent, attribuée aux défaillances des marchés de biens et du travail et, par suite, à l’insuffisante...

This short comment provides an assessment on the impact of changing the rules of social security contributions by employers, namely raising the tax base to include not only wages but also value added or capital investments.

The effects of the current crisis on the level of output, and consequently on unemployment and poverty, are likely to be deep and long lasting; they should not be underestimated, especially now that some timid signs of recovery are appearing. The crisis was triggered by the US financial sector,...

This paper reviews the debate on the Stability and Growth Pact. Both empirical and theoretical arguments in favour of the Pact are weak, to warrant a different and plausible (even if extreme) hypothesis: We suggest the view that the Stability Pact is a public social norm, obeyed by countries...

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...