Past events

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The corona pandemic has created a health and economic crisis without modern parallel: as it hit countries ill-prepared and spread quickly within the EU, member states had to adopt more interventionist approaches than ever before – particularly in the areas of fiscal and monetary policy, but also labor markets, redistribution mechanisms, and industrial policy. Finding a compromise as to which measures are suitable to save the Union is the subject of emotional debate. Yet, the decisions and measures taken in each country and at a European level will set the course for economic and political development in the years to come. They will also shape the countries' prospects for the coming decades.

Against this backdrop, the EconPol Europe Annual Conference 2020 will once again bring together our expert network members from across Europe with politicians, policy makers, researchers and journalists to discuss the question, 'How to Safeguard Sustainable Financing for the EU?'. This year’s conference will be held online, with broadcasts from across Europe and exclusive online content. Our day one panel discussion will focus on the topic ‘Balancing New Challenges and Sustainable and Inclusive Growth for Europe’.

The second CESifo – EconPol Europe Workshop will take place online on 15-16 October. The workshop will bring together junior and senior researchers whose research focuses on public policy evaluation (ex post or ex ante simulations) as well as optimal policy design, covering one of EconPol Europe’s research areas.

Equality of opportunity is a widely shared ideal in Western societies. While most people are willing to reward hard work and effort, they strongly oppose outcome differences due to pre-determined circumstances, such as race, parental background or gender. Against this backdrop and in light of increasing social tensions during the Covid-19 crisis, it is of foremost importance to develop a policy agenda that levels the playing field and puts people in a position to pursue their life goals independently of their background characteristics.

In this panel debate, Sara Baiocco (EconPol Europe, CEPS), Arnaud Lefranc (CY Cergy Paris Université) and Larissa Zierow (EconPol Europe, ifo Institute) will discuss the role of educational policies throughout the life cycle, from early childhood to adult learning, in such an agenda. Which features of current educational systems and of social investment policies are the biggest inhibitors to equal opportunities? What are the most promising policy changes on our way forward? How does the Covid-19 crisis affect educational opportunities and what can we learn from the policy responses in the different EU member states?

Arnaud Lefranc and Larissa Zierow will share insights from their work on the IMCHILD research project. Sara Baiocco will complement the discussion with her experience working on adult learning policies.

Using the tax system to support research and development has become a very popular policy tool. Many countries are implementing incentives such as tax credits, patent boxes and direct subsidies to stimulate new R&D. But is there really a causal relationship between these policies and the R&D spending done by the businesses receiving the incentives? And if so, is this R&D productive, and does it have an impact on the wider economy?

For our last joint lunch debate with CEPS before the summer break. we presented the latest research into this area. İrem Güçeri (EconPol Europe, Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford), Ruzica Rakic (DG Research & Innovation, European Commission) and journalist Jennifer Baker discussed the question: is there an optimal policy mix for incentivizing R&D?

VIDEO: Panelist and co-author of the research İrem Güçeri explains the background to her work: Supporting Firm Innovation in R&D: What is the Optimal Policy Mix? 

POLICY REPORT: Supporting Firm Innovation and R&D: What is the Optimal Policy Mix?

The European debt crisis has brought about permanent changes in the Eurozone. The no-bailout rule was - de facto - removed, new institutions such as the European Stability Mechanism and the banking union were designed and partially implemented, new monitoring and surveillance schemes such as the macroeconomic imbalance procedure were introduced. In this way, the functioning of the Eurozone has been irreversibly transformed. Now, a new and even more devastating crisis has hit the Eurozone in the form of Covid19 and the resulting economic impact. 

Will we observe the substantive, if not also formal, infringement of well established principles such as those preventing the ECB from monetizing government deficits, the member states from mutualizing their debt and the Eurozone from becoming a transfer union? To what extent will this infringement be necessary and sufficient to avoid the Eurozone’s implosion? And is it going to be purely temporary or is likely to be long lasting? Given the political dynamics that are under way in the EU member states, will there be enough consensus in support of these policy shifts in both Eurozone’s core and peripheral countries, or will they cause political turmoil? 

In the first online version of our series of joint CEPS and EconPol lunch debates, moderator Jennifer Baker (www.BrusselsGeek.com) will put these questions, and more, to Luigi Bonatti (EconPol Europe, Università di Trento), Daniel Gros (EconPol Europe, CEPS) and Nicola Rossi (Università degli Studi di Roma).