Macroeconomic Imbalances and Comparative Advantages in the Euro Area

Macroeconomic Imbalances and Comparative Advantages in the Euro Area PDF Author: Stefan Collignon
Publisher: ETUI
ISBN: 2874522740
Category : Euro
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
The emergence of macroeconomic imbalances among EU member states is often seen as a major underlying factor of the recent European debt crisis. In order to identify and tackle these imbalances, the European authorities established, in 2011, a new surveillance tool incorporating rules to prevent future imbalances and labelled the Excessive Imbalance Procedure (EIP). Stefan Collignon argues that the premises of the Excessive Imbalance Procedure are in fact wrong, and its implementation therefore misguided, in that they take for granted the policy framework of the nation state whereas the Euro Area economy is, in reality, integrated into a single market with a single currency, such that so-called ‘foreign’ debt is, effectively, debt to other residents in the Euro Area. The author demonstrates, furthermore, that strict adherence to the EIP could, in conjunction with other new economic governance instruments, entail devastating consequences for peripheral countries in the European Union. Following his observation that current indicators used by the Commission fail to provide a correct or accurate assessment of imbalances in the Euro Area, the author devises a new ‘Competitive Index’, calculated as the difference between actual and equilibrium unit labour costs, which he recommends as an alternative and better indicator in the context of the Alert Mechanism Reports to be issued by the European Commission in the future.

Macroeconomic Imbalances and Comparative Advantages in the Euro Area

Macroeconomic Imbalances and Comparative Advantages in the Euro Area PDF Author: Stefan Collignon
Publisher: ETUI
ISBN: 2874522740
Category : Euro
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
The emergence of macroeconomic imbalances among EU member states is often seen as a major underlying factor of the recent European debt crisis. In order to identify and tackle these imbalances, the European authorities established, in 2011, a new surveillance tool incorporating rules to prevent future imbalances and labelled the Excessive Imbalance Procedure (EIP). Stefan Collignon argues that the premises of the Excessive Imbalance Procedure are in fact wrong, and its implementation therefore misguided, in that they take for granted the policy framework of the nation state whereas the Euro Area economy is, in reality, integrated into a single market with a single currency, such that so-called ‘foreign’ debt is, effectively, debt to other residents in the Euro Area. The author demonstrates, furthermore, that strict adherence to the EIP could, in conjunction with other new economic governance instruments, entail devastating consequences for peripheral countries in the European Union. Following his observation that current indicators used by the Commission fail to provide a correct or accurate assessment of imbalances in the Euro Area, the author devises a new ‘Competitive Index’, calculated as the difference between actual and equilibrium unit labour costs, which he recommends as an alternative and better indicator in the context of the Alert Mechanism Reports to be issued by the European Commission in the future.

Macroeconomic Imbalances

Macroeconomic Imbalances PDF Author: European Commission. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of payments
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Recoge: Revisión de la economía italiana con la intención de identificar presentes o potenciales desequilibrios y los posibles riesgos macroeconómicos que pueden implicar.

Rising Powers and Economic Crisis in the Euro Area

Rising Powers and Economic Crisis in the Euro Area PDF Author: Ferdi De Ville
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113751440X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
In this book, Ferdi De Ville and Mattias Vermeiren examine the linkages between the economic crisis in the euro area and the rise of Brazil, India and China (BICs) in the global monetary and trading system. Drawing on the insights of the comparative capitalism literature, the authors show that the latter development has been a key source of the escalation of trade imbalances in the euro area, which are widely seen as an important cause of the financial and economic crisis in the region. By pointing to the external source of these imbalances and the divergent institutional capacity of the euro area countries to deal with the intensified competition associated with the rise of the BICs, De Ville and Vermeiren go beyond the focus on the divergence in unit labor costs as the driving force of these imbalances. As such, this book provides a comprehensive policy critique of the EU’s export-led growth strategy based on declining unit labor costs.

Surveillance of Intra-euro-area

Surveillance of Intra-euro-area PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of trade
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description


Analysis on the trade imbalances within the European Union

Analysis on the trade imbalances within the European Union PDF Author: Valerio Zoccante
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668009325
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: B, University of Southern Denmark, language: English, abstract: The aim of this work is to assess the factors that have been affecting the imbalances of trade within countries of the European Union. The analysis takes into consideration the elements that could affect the balance of trade, thus saving or investment. The variables that are included in the panel data framework are related to productivity, inflation, consumption, wage level, capital movements, demography of the population, economic growth, public and private debt levels. A panel data, that leaves out countries from East Europe, is created, and takes values that go from 2002 to 2013. The panel data shows that technology gaps and capital movements have been the main factors that affected the balance of trade of the peripheral countries. Peripheral countries did not invest enough in projects that could enhance the productivity, leading to a competitiveness loss that was not followed by a correction of the wage levels. Moreover, capital movements have been financing consumption surges in Greece and Portugal, whereas in Spain and Ireland those capitals have fueled credit booms and house bubbles. Therefore, those countries have been experiencing a worsening of their balance of trade, and investors have not been willed anymore to finance additional debt. Indeed, Members of the euroarea could not guarantee that the central bank could play the role of lender of last resort. Knowing that, in a currency union, the external position of a country represents its capacity of producing goods and services that could serve the debt in a troubled time, in the eyes of the investors the balances of trade of the peripheral eurozone countries became relevant during the European sovereign debt crisis. In the European framework, in order to decrease the imbalances of trade within the Members, fiscal transfers to peripheral countries could be beneficial for decreasing the cost that peripheral countries need to undergo during the adjustment period, whereas reforms that aim to enhance productivity in the peripheral countries and increase the mobility and the flexibility of the product and labor markets could be highly helpful. The following work highlights all those elements in a empirical framework, relating, however, the results to the literature that has been developed around the European case and the optimum currency area.

In Search of a New Equilibrium

In Search of a New Equilibrium PDF Author: Paolo Canofari
Publisher: Edizioni Nuova Cultura
ISBN: 8868124556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The book shows that the overcoming of the negative imbalances in the current accounts of the large majority of peripheral Member States in the euro area is mainly due to a recession-driven decrease in import, a monetary wage compression, and below average rates of inflation. This re-equilibrating process thus leads to short-term adjustments, in the sense that it is unable to structurally fill the competitive gaps accumulated inside the euro area during the first decade of its life (1999-2007), owing to the inefficient allocation of the financial flows coming from the European central countries and invested in the European peripheral countries. Contrary to the predictions of the standard macroeconomic models based on the “catching up” mechanism, these financial flows did not adequately foster the productivity of lagged Member States in the euro area. Our proposal is to replace the “invisible hand” of the market with the “visible hand” of a European policy project. We argue that an effective policy initiative would have to combine a programme of European public and private investments with “contractual arrangements” aimed at implementing crucial national reforms. This strategy might provide a short term positive demand shock as well as the long term strengthening of the structural competitiveness of the peripheral Member States without involving direct financial transfers but allowing an intergovernmental co-operation and a trust-building process under the control of the European institutions. Marcello Messori is Professor of Economics at the Department of Political Science, LUISS Guido Carli (Rome) and Director of the LUISS School of European Political Economy (SEP).

Macroeconomic Imbalances in Euro- and Non-Euro Area Member States

Macroeconomic Imbalances in Euro- and Non-Euro Area Member States PDF Author: Daniela Bobeva
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
The recent reforms in the European economic governance framework add to the Stability and Growth pact requirements for establishing a new macroeconomic surveillance mechanism for both euro area and non-euro area countries. The early identification and the prevention of imbalances are of vital importance in a monetary union due to the limitations they impose on the tools available to economic policymaking. This paper examines the macroeconomic imbalances in the euro area countries in comparison with the non-euro area countries based on the set of indicators in the Scoreboard that is part of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP), introduced in 2011.While the aim of the new alert mechanism is to identify potential risks this study goes further in measuring the level of risks by the scope of the deviation from the established thresholds. For this purpose an Integral Macroeconomic Imbalance Indicator (IMII) is constructed. It serves for comparing the level of imbalances between the countries in pre- and post-crisis period. The composed IMII indicates a tangible reduction in the scale of imbalances as compared to the pre-crisis period but the divergence between the countries enlarges. The results undermine the assumptions that the euro area countries will exhibit fewer imbalances as compared to the countries outside of the monetary union. Based on the dynamics of IMII it could be assumed that maintaining the macroeconomic framework within the thresholds is necessary but not sufficient to prevent future crisis. The results further question the ability of the alert mechanism to identify the sources of a future crisis.

Macroeconomic Imbalances

Macroeconomic Imbalances PDF Author: European Commission. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of payments
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
On 14 February 2012, the European Commission presented its first Alert Mechanism Report (AMR), prepared in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No. 1176/2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. The AMR serves as an initial screening device, helping to identify Member States that warrant further in-depth analysis to determine whether imbalances exist or risk emerging. According to Article 5 of Regulation No. 1176/2011, these country-specific ?in-depth reviews? should examine the nature, origin and severity of macroeconomic developments in the Member State concerned, which constitute, or could lead to, imbalances. On the basis of this analysis, the Commission will establish whether it considers that an imbalance exists and what type of policy follow-up it will recommend to the Council. The AMR suggested the need to look more closely at whether the UK is suffering from macroeconomic imbalances of an internal and external nature. The AMR noted that, on the internal side, the high level of private debt is a concern, also in a context of a weak public finance situation with high and increasing government debt. The high value of private debt largely reflects household mortgages in a context of high accumulated increases in house prices. While both the levels of real household debt and real house prices have reduced, they still remain comparatively high which suggests that their unwinding has further to go where the speed of adjustment is an important aspect. On the external side, the UK lost export market share over the last decade, although some stabilisation can be noted in recent years. This loss of market shares took place despite a substantial depreciation of sterling between 2007 and 2009. At the same time and since 1997, the UK recorded small but significant current account deficits albeit below the indicative threshold. The purpose of the present in-depth review is to investigate the findings presented in the AMR and to ascertain whether macroeconomic imbalances of either an internal or external nature effectively exist in the UK and, if so, whether they are excessive in the meaning of Regulation no. 1176/2011. Sections 2 and 3 of this review analyse the existence and nature of potential macroeconomic imbalances in the UK. Section 2 takes a broad perspective of the UK economy, while section 3 focuses on two potential areas of concern for the UK: household debt and the housing market on the one hand, and external competitiveness on the other hand. Section 4 presents possible policy considerations.

Macroeconomic Imbalances

Macroeconomic Imbalances PDF Author: European Commission. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of payments
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
On 14 February 2012, the European Commission presented its first Alert Mechanism Report (AMR) in accordance with the Regulation (EU) No. 1176/2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. The AMR serves as an initial screening device to identify Member States that warrant further in depth analysis into whether imbalances exist or risk emerging. According to Article 5 of Regulation No. 1176/2011, these country-specific ?in-depth reviews? should examine the nature, origin and severity of macroeconomic developments in the Member State concerned, which constitute, or could lead to, imbalances. On the basis of this analysis, the Commission concludes whether it considers that an imbalance exists or not, and if so whether it is excessive or not, and what type of follow-up it will recommend to the Council to address to the Member State. This in-depth review concludes that Hungary is experiencing serious macroeconomic imbalances, which are not excessive but need to be addressed. In particular, certain macroeconomic developments such as the highly negative size of the net international investment position and public debt deserve very close attention so as to reduce the important risks of adverse effects on the functioning of the economy.

Macroeconomic Imbalances in the Euro Area

Macroeconomic Imbalances in the Euro Area PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789289933704
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
This occasional paper reviews the macroeconomic developments in the euro area countries over the past 20 years. It analyses the accumulation of macroeconomic imbalances in the first decade of the EMU and their unwinding during the second decade. It shows that while flow imbalances have been corrected to a large extent, stock imbalances persist. The presence of large stock imbalances implies that the adjustment process needs to continue in the years to come. Accordingly, this paper reviews the national responses so far and the importance of well-functioning national economic structures for facilitating the adjustment process within the EMU. It shows that national structural policies are able to stimulate the supply side of the economy, increase adjustment capacity and mitigate the adverse growth effects of high debt and deleveraging. Finally, it gives an overview of the European response to address macroeconomic imbalances, id est the establishment of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). The MIP has contributed to increasing the general attention given to macroeconomic imbalances in the euro area and to the critical role that structural reforms play in facilitating their adjustment. Looking forward, further steps would appear to be warranted in order to move from greater awareness towards stronger ownership and implementation of reforms.