Le blog du CEPII
Money & Finance

The 2023 CEPII's Programme of work: focus on shocks and deep transformations of global economy

 PostFebruary 22, 2023
By Antoine Bouët, Christophe Destais, Lionel Fontagné, Thomas Grjebine, Vincent Vicard
This year, the major topics of the CEPII's work programme emerge from the current gloomy context: the energy transition, the resilience of value chains, impacts of geopolitical tensions, the macroeconomic situation marked by new budgetary priorities and the tightening of monetary policies.


Addressing macroeconomic imbalances within the euro area: still a long road ahead

 PostApril 15, 2019
By Virginie Coudert, Cécile Couharde, Carl Grekou, Valérie Mignon
The shock caused by the 2007-08 financial collapse, followed by the European sovereign debt crisis, has raised new doubts about the ability of the single currency to work well in a region with huge economic and political diversity. It has also given a new dimension to this debate by highlighting the building-up of unsustainable macroeconomic imbalances within the European Monetary Union (EMU).


Fixing the euro needs to go beyond economics

 PostOctober 29, 2018
By Anne-Laure Delatte
The agenda to fix the euro is hampered by conflicting national interests. Creditor countries demand fiscal house cleaning and debtor countries ask for risk sharing. There is currently a political deadlock about how the adjustment burden should be distributed, perpetuating a state of vulnerability that is not in the collective interest of euro area members. This column, part of the Vox debate on euro area reform, argues that overcoming this coordination failure requires reforming the political governance of the EU, rather than just its economic governance.
This post has been first published on VoxEU.

Banks Defy Gravity in Tax Havens

 PostSeptember 21, 2018
By Vincent Bouvatier, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Anne-Laure Delatte
This post, already published in Voxeu, examines the contribution of EU banks to tax evasion. It presents the new finding that bank activity in tax havens is three times larger when using new country-by-country regulatory data than what is predicted by the gravity model, and that British and German banks are particularly present in tax havens.



In search of a liquid asset for European financial markets

 PostJuly 15, 2016
By Francesco Molteni
European financial markets face a shortage of liquid assets. New regulations increase banks’ demand for liquid securities, mainly sovereign bonds, but the European fiscal rules constrain the supply of public debt. Further, the QE is draining bonds from the market. Some proposed forms of “Eurobonds” or new debt securities issued by European supranational organizations could solve this problem.










Volatility and uncertainty are not the same!

 PostMay 4, 2015
By Valérie Mignon, Marc Joëts, Tovonony Razafindrabe
Crude oil price volatility is often viewed as reflecting uncertainty not only related to the oil market, but also to the global macroeconomic environment. However, the question arises as to whether uncertainty is not likely to be at play without generating high volatility on the oil market.

QE - "European style": be bolder, but parsimonious!

 PostMarch 24, 2015
By Urszula Szczerbowicz, Natacha Valla
The ECB will purchase a monthly €60bn of private and public debt instruments between March 2015 and September 2016 – a total worth over €1 trillion. While the timing and size of purchases are known, there is more leeway than it seems in the way purchases are allocated to each category of assets.

Quantitative Easing: were markets surprised?

 PostJanuary 24, 2015
By Stéphane Lhuissier
The ECB has announced that it will launch in March its first round of quantitative easing. The announcement contains some good and bad surprises: the size of the ECB's plan is gigantic, while the Central Bank was unclear about the Greek issue. How was this announcement perceived by markets?

ECB equity purchases: too risky, really?

 PostJanuary 9, 2015
By Urszula Szczerbowicz, Natacha Valla
Instead of buying sovereign debt, the ECB could broaden further its purchases to include equity of all sorts. Fuelling an equity bubble is no worse than fuelling a bond one. It can be mitigated by intervening secretly and including non listed securities. Inhibitions to take risk should be lifted.



The delusion of State guarantees

 PostOctober 3, 2014
By Natacha Valla
European policymakers are currently busy addressing two issues: moribund investment and banks on extended sick leave. Some observers might be tempted to segregate these issues. While investment would be in the remit of States, the financial health of our economies would be under the responsibility of the ECB alone.



Euro area: deflation is the wrong debate

 PostMarch 6, 2014
By Natacha Valla
For a fact, measures of headline consumer price inflation have decelerated sharply over the recent past. At 0.8-1%; inflation hovers around levels that are clearly below the ECB’s flagship 2% medium-term objective.








Monetary policy in exceptional times

 PostJanuary 31, 2013
By Urszula Szczerbowicz
The last 5 years have been a major challenge for the theory and practice of monetary policy. The key channel of conventional monetary policy has been severely impaired and the target policy rates in some countries have approached zero.




The case for the ECB sovereign bonds purchases

 PostJuly 10, 2012
By Urszula Szczerbowicz
On Thursday July 5th the ECB decided to cut its main refinancing rate to 0.75%, for the first time crossing the historical low of 1%. More importantly, it reduced the overnight deposit facility rate to 0%. In doing so, the ECB encouraged banks to transform the liquidity received via two 3-year LTROs into credit to companies and households, instead of keeping it at the ECB deposit facility.


The international monetary system needs the euro

 PostJanuary 12, 2012
By Agnès Bénassy-Quéré
With the survival of the euro area at stake, and the reform of the international monetary system no longer a priority of the G20 presidency, it may seem strange to call for an increased international role of the euro.


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