Upcoming events

• Searching for Strategies to Restore Global Economic Stability and Growth

  The G8 Summit that will take place in the United States May 19-20, 2012 will likely exhibit the same urgency that has attended other recent G8 and G20 meetings. Slow growth, high unemployment, foreign debt concerns, financial disarray, and mounting social unrest mean that the global economy will once again take center stage at the upcoming G8 meeting. Although a global depression may have been averted, recession in Europe and a further global slowdown are likely. Recovery remains uncertain and protracted at best. The situation has left leaders groping for a “desperate optimism,” as Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, recently described it. Leaders of developed economies, struggling with their own high levels of sovereign debt, are unlikely to generate new approaches to current problems without the help of others. Emerging economies like China and Brazil - which have remained relatively immune to the ongoing crisis and may hold the key to a more stable future - are themselves put at risk by adverse conditions and are not yet in a position to drive solutions. The 2012 G8 Summit, along with Mexico City’s G20 Summit that will follow only weeks later in June 2012, are poised to serve as a crucial juncture in the unfolding global economic crisis, one that either begins to chart a new path toward stability, or one that fails to produce the mechanisms needed to avert future turmoil. In advance of the G8 Summit, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Center for Macroeconomics at Northwestern University, the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, the Kellogg School of Management and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the Chinese National School of Development (CCER), the European Bruegel Institute, the Japan Economic Foundation, the Brazilian Fundação Getulio Vargas, and the Mexican Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) will host in Chicago a two-day international conference in early May 2012 on “Searching for Strategies to Restore Global Economic Stability and Growth." The conference will bring together senior policy practitioners, business leaders, academics, and thought leaders from select G8 and G20 countries to address key challenges confronting the global political economy including: sustained financial turmoil, renewed recessionary fears, persistent macro-imbalances, continued popular protest over damaged social compacts, and rising political populism. The conference will produce a summary report that will be released around the G8 Summit to help inform conversations at the Summit and the June 2012 G20 meeting to be held in Mexico City.

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• How can digitization transform the growth enhancing power of innovation

  The revival in US productivity growth since the mid-1990s is linked to a surge in investment in information and communication technologies (ICT). Against the backdrop of a weakening link between productivity and traditional innovation inputs (e.g. R&D expenditure), digitization has spurred productivity through innovations in management techniques, business models, work processes and human resource practices. More fundamentally, digitization is changing the way innovation itself is done, opening the prospect of a long-term increase in the overall rate of innovation. Over time, this will dwarf the benefits from any particular innovation. Digitization is transforming innovation in four ways:

  1. improved real-time measurement of business activities
  2. faster and cheaper business experimentation
  3. more widespread and easier sharing of ideas
  4. the ability to replicate innovations more quickly and more accurately. This mutually reinforcing sequence amounts to a new kind of R&D, with far-reaching implications for public policy.

  Speakers

  Erik Brynjolfsson is Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His work has been recognized with nine "Best Paper" awards from fellow academics. He is frequently cited in the business press, and was named one of five “E-Business Visionaries” by BusinessWeek and one of the two most influential academics by Optimize magazine. Erik is the co-editor of two books, Understanding the Digital Economy and Strategies for eBusiness Success. Discussant: Isabel Grilo, European Commission, DG ECFIN Chair: Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow Bruegel

  Event materials

  • Erik Brynjolfsson's presentation - ICT and Innovation here
  • ICT, Innovation and the E-Economy, Erik Brynjolfsson here

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• The economic impact of venture capital investment in Europe

  This Finance Focus Breakfast discussed the economic impact of venture capital investment in Europe. The presentation by Massimo Colombo was followed by comments by Karen Wilson and an open discussion moderated by Reinhilde Veugelers. This session of the Finance Focus Breakfast series was devoted to venture capital (VC) funds and their economic role in the EU. It was focused on the presentation and discussion of results from a large EU-funded research endeavor (VICO project), including the impact of VC funding on firm growth performance and the importance of VC investments from the view point of the innovation policy community as well as from the financial markets’ perspective.
  

  Speakers

  Massimo Colombo is professor of Economics of Technical Change in the Politecnico di Milano, Italy’s largest technical university, and the research coordinator of the VICO project. He holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milan and has been a member of its faculty since 1984. Karen Wilson is a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and also works in the Structural Policy Division of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate at the OECD. Previously, she held senior positions in the venture capital industry, at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and at Harvard Business School as director of its Global Initiative. She holds a degree in mathematics and management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

  Video

  After the event, Karen Wilson and Massimo Colombo gave an interview focused on their policy recommendations about venture capital investments in Europe. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BBnTE6AHAjk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

  Photos

  

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• Assessing the impact of EU cohesion policy

  The meeting was organised in two sessions. One was institutional and looked at the new performance-oriented EU cohesion policy, its rationale and previous experiences with impact assessment. The other one aimed to assess the growth effects of EU cohesion policy with an eye at the different methodologies that have been used to measure them.

  Programme - download here

  08.55 - 09.00 – Welcome by Guntram Wolff 09.00 - 10.45 Session 1 – The impact of EU cohesion policy Chair: Benedicta Marzinotto, Bruegel Should EU cohesion policy be assessed for what it delivers? How to assess its impact? How to organize impact assessment? What results have previous exercises produced? Speakers:
  • 09.00-09.20 Philip McCann, University of Groningen and special adviser to Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy
  • 09.20-09.40 Veronica Gaffey, European Commission
  • 09.40-10.00 Piotr Zuber, Polish Ministry of Regional Development
  Discussant:
  • 10.00-10.15 Laszlo Csaba, Central European University and Corvinus University, Budapest
  10.15-10.45: Q&A and Roundtable discussion 10.45-11.00 Coffee break 11.00-12.30 Session 2 – Growth effects: what can economic models tell us? Chair: Zsolt Darvas, Bruegel How much economic growth has EU cohesion policy produced? What can economic models teach us about the impact of EU cohesion policy? What different methodologies are used to measure effectiveness and what are their relative merits? Speakers:
  • 11.00-11.20 Angel de la Fuente, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics
  • 11.20-11.40 John Bradley, EMDS
  • 11.40-12.00 Jan in’t Veld, European Commission
  Discussant:
  • 12.00-12.15 Stig Henneberg, Danish Ministry of Finance
  12.15-12.45 Q&A and Roundtable discussion 12.50 – Buffet lunch 13.30 - END

  Event materials

  • Summary of the event here
  • John Bradley, presentation, Assesing the impact of EU cohesion policy: what can economic models tell us? here
  • Angel de la Fuente, Testing, not modelling, the impact of Cohesion support: a theoretical framework and some preliminary results for the Spanish regions, here
  • Janos Varga and Jan in 't Veld, Assessing the potential impact of EU Cohesion Policy based on a structural macroeconomic model with semi-endogenous growth, here
  • Veronica Gaffey, Evaluating the impact of EU cohesion policy here

  Video

  <iframe width="350" height="252" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/meAu1ROmXnU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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• The workings of the new global economic order – Australia as a case study of how new rising powers shape economics and policies

  Across ministries, businesses, think tanks, universities, newspapers and blogs, the world is busy trying to analyse the implications of a changing international economic order, triggered by the rise of emerging Asia in general, and of China in particular. What will this reallocation in the distribution of financial power from the traditional players to the new powers mean for the developed world? Mark Thirlwell, Director of the International Economy program at the Lowy Institute, Australia’s leading international policy think tank, will describe how Australia’s recent experience provides an interesting case study of life in China’s economic orbit. Last year, more than one in every four dollars Australia earned in exports came from sales to China, and the country is by far the single biggest recipient of Chinese non-financial investment. Economic engagement with China has helped transform Australia’s economic fortunes and contributed to turning the country into one of the world’s best performing developed economies. But it has also forced policymakers to grapple with a series of challenges, ranging from setting policies to deal with Chinese investment through adapting to significant structural change on to juggling the complex three-way relationship between Canberra’s traditional security ally in Washington and its new economic partner in Beijing.

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• Clearing houses and derivatives market structures

  Speakers

  • Nikhil Rathi, HM Treasury, UK

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• China invests in Europe: patterns, impacts and policy issues

  At this event the report by Rhodium Group’s Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann on Chinese investment in Europe will be presented. Opening remarks will be given by EU Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht. This will be followed by a presentation of the report’s findings from Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann. A distinguished panel of experts and practitioners, including Bruegel Senior Fellow André Sapir and Frank Xu, will discuss the state of Chinese investment and the implications of the study. Europe is waking up to the both the promise and potential impacts of Chinese investment: $10 billion in direct investment in 2011 alone practically doubled China’s presence in the EU. European leaders, industry and civil society are not sure what to make of these figures. Is Europe doing well or poorly in attracting attention from China? Are these new Asian competitors simply recognising the attractions of Europe as a marketplace, or exploiting a fire sale? Can current policy and regulatory frameworks accommodate the rise of China as major investor? The study to be presented at this event will help answer these questions.

  Speakers

  • Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade
  • Thilo Hanemann, Research director at Rhodium Group
  • Daniel H. Rosen, Partner at Rhodium Group
  • André Sapir, Senior Fellow at Bruegel and Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • Frank Xu, Managing Partner at China International Capital Corporation
  • Chair - Neil McMillan, Partner at Brunswick

  Agenda

  10:45 Registration and welcome coffee
  11:00 Welcome by André Sapir, Senior Fellow at Bruegel and Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles
  11:10 Opening comments by Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade
  11:30 Presentation by Thilo Hanemann, Research director at Rhodium Group and Daniel H. Rosen, Partner at Rhodium Group
  12:00 Panel discussion moderated by Neil McMillan, Partner at Brunswick
  13:00 Buffet lunch
  14:00 End of event Registration for the event will open at 10:45 after which the event begins at 11:00. Lunch will be served after the event at 13:30 The event is jointly organised by Bruegel, China International Capital Corporation and Brunswick Group.

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