COVID-19 Policy Response Can Inform the Design of a Climate Club

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Having had little time to absorb the economic and social shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU is confronted with yet another crisis – rising energy prices due to Russia’s war in Ukraine coupled with inflation reaching historic levels. Household burdens vary greatly across and within EU member states, requiring different policy responses. In most European countries, high energy prices impose a heavier burden on low-income households. Putting compensatory measures in place to support the most vulnerable is therefore a priority. In this Forum, contributors consider specific responses from individual EU member states and the EU as a whole to determine best practices and gauge how they may be more effectively applied.
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Forum Introduction: Tackling the European Energy Crisis

Exiting the Energy Crisis: Lessons Learned from the Energy Price Cap Policy in France

The Tale of the German Gas Price Brake: Why We Need Economic Disaster Preparedness in Times of Overlapping Emergencies

Understanding Inflation: The Italian Case

The UK Energy Price Guarantee

An EU Price Cap for Natural Gas: A Bad Idea Made Redundant by Market Forces

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EU fiscal rules are meant to keep public finances on a sustainable path. This paper presents a new database that tracks numerical compliance with the four main rules of the Stability and Growth Pact starting in 1998. Our assessment of numerical compliance abstracts from the many exceptions and elements of discretion allowed by the letter and the spirit of EU law. It focuses on the main course of action implied by the rules. Overall, our database points to a very mixed compliance record. On average – across countries, years and rules – budgetary policies of the EU member states are compliant in just over half of the cases with stark and persistent differences across countries. We also detect a distinct cyclical pattern of compliance, which sends false signals of safety in good times.
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Numerical Compliance with EU Fiscal Rules: Facts and Figures from a New Database

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Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has been under an EU sanctions regime. While these sanctions have not prevented Putin from ordering an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in the overall picture, they have significantly weakened Russia’s ability to wage war. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the sanctions and argues that the EU should maintain and tighten sanctions, thus further weakening the military and economic power of the Putin regime.
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Why Sanctions Against Russia Work

The Green and Digital Twin Transition: EU vs US Firms

The Debt Ceiling, Once More, with Feeling...

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This paper investigates determinants of convergence in GDP per capita in the euro area and the EU between 1995 and 2021. It finds that the COVID-19 crisis temporarily slowed convergence but the estimated negative impact is significantly smaller than during the global financial crisis. Diverging effects emerged linked to the timing of the pandemic, the tightness of lockdown measures and the importance of contact-intensive sectors in the economy, like tourism. However, the easing of lockdown measures coupled with policy support (including the successful vaccination strategy) mitigated the risks of a pandemic-driven persistent divergence in growth. Regression results provide further evidence of convergence in the euro area and the EU over the period 1995-2021 and highlight the slowdown in convergence since the global financial crisis, which can be mostly attributed both to a contraction in investment rates in converging countries and to the limited catch-up in total factor productivity growth, especially in euro area countries.
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Convergence in GDP per Capita in the Euro Area and the EU at the Time of COVID-19

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 59 (2024): Issue 2 (March 2024)

Volume 59 (2024): Issue 1 (February 2024)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 6 (December 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 5 (September 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 4 (July 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 3 (June 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 2 (March 2023)

Volume 58 (2023): Issue 1 (January 2023)

Intereconomics

Intereconomics publishes papers dealing with economic and social policy issues in Europe. The journal consists of the following sections: editorial, forum and articles. The editorial section contains brief comments on the latest questions of economic policy in Europe or effecting Europe. In the forum, different authors (researchers, politicians, representatives of trade unions and of employers’ associations etc.) voice their opinions on one particular current economic policy problem facing Europe. The articles, mostly written by economic researchers, address European economic policy issues and trends. The scope of Intereconomics covers the following:   investigates economic and social policy issues in Europe;  offers brief comments on current questions of economic policy in Europe; presents various opinions and perspectives on selected current economic policy problems;  All articles published are made available online; publication costs are covered by the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW).  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 