barriers

June 1, 2016

The Authoritarian Populism Index: Main Findings

The Authoritarian Populist Index (TAP) includes both right- and left-wing populist parties and covers all national elections in 33 European countries, from 1980 to 2016. The Index shows an alarming development, with authoritarian and illiberal parties and ideas steadily gaining influence across the continent.
June 1, 2016

Brexit: a Natural Experiment for the EU

Can a country do better after leaving the EU? Indeed, we can perform an even more granular analysis and seek to establish in which policy areas the greater policy flexibility and decentralisation which comes with departure might outweigh the cost of losing the EU’s four freedoms and its constitutional barriers against bad government policy.
May 1, 2016

Bans on Homesharing Won’t Redress Berlin’s Housing Shortage

A law banning short-term apartment rentals just came into force in Berlin. The measure, which was passed in 2014 but only entered into force on 1 May, is aimed at releasing housing for Berliners. In the words of Andreas Geise, the city’s head of urban development, the law is “a necessary and sensible instrument against the housing shortage in Berlin.”
May 1, 2016

TTIP: a Pre-mortem

o say that negotiations for an EU-U.S. trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), have lost momentum since they kicked off in the summer of 2013 is an understatement. The pact’s slow progress looks set to become the greatest disappointment since Scott Walker’s (remember him?) failed Republican presidential bid.
May 1, 2016

Pricking the Balloon on Eurozone Deflation

As growth rates in the Eurozone gather steam, policymakers’ concerns are increasingly shifting to low inflation. According to Eurostat, consumer prices in the Eurozone have declined by 0.2% in the past year.
April 1, 2016

Prospects for Agricultural Reform in the EU

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is today the EU’s most expensive policy, taking up almost half of the annual budget. It is also its most interventionist and complex policy. Multiple reforms have created a system of decoupled payments to farmers that protect and prolong the life of small-scale farms and constrain large-scale farming and the evolution towards a more efficient industry structure.
February 1, 2016

Regulatory Approaches to the Sharing Economy

The sharing economy is based on reductions in transaction costs which enable exchanges that were previously not possible. Sharing economy firms facilitate a more efficient use of assets, to the benefit of both asset owners and prospective users. Its potential positive impact on welfare has been estimated at over €1,000 per EU citizen.