EU policy

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.”
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.
November 25, 2015

The Eurozone’s Deposit Insurance Scheme Creates More Problems Than It Solves

The European Commission has released its plan for an EU-wide deposit insurance scheme that will, at first, back up and complement existing national deposit guarantee schemes (DGS), and, from 2024, substitute them as the guarantor of EU bank deposits of up to €100,000.
June 1, 2015

Position: Digital Single Market Proposals

The digital revolution is increasingly making barriers to access, trade and innovation obsolete. Remaining obstacles to more efficient exchange of digital goods and services across the EU must be examined in this context. It is very likely that a continued open environment to innovation will be the most effective way to remove whatever barriers still exist. In general, the bias should be against new regulation.
April 1, 2015

Company Finance in the EU, and the Capital Markets Union

Post-crisis financial regulation of banks and new regulations being developed for insurance companies have likely contributed to the dearth of financing for EU companies. The Commission must consider the adverse impact that regulatory measures, both at Union and Member State levels, have had on business finance.
April 1, 2015

Position Sur Le “Dégroupage” Des Moteurs De Recherche

Le « dégroupage » réduirait sévèrement la capacité des moteurs de recherche à innover, tout en augmentant également les barrières à l’entrée pour de nouveaux acteurs et en décourageant l’investissement dans le secteur numérique.