Upcoming events

• Rising tide: is growth in emerging economies good for the developed world?

  A core premise motivating most current international economic policies is that growth in the developing countries is also beneficial to the advanced countries. However, this view has increasingly been challenged as several prominent economists (e.g. Paul Samuelson and Paul Krugman) and the public at large have raised questions about the effect of such growth on aggregate welfare, wage inequality and the loss of manufacturing jobs. Robert Z. Lawrence will evaluate these concerns using the results of a recent study published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (Lawrence Edwards and Robert Lawrence, Rising Tide: Is Growth in Emerging Economies Good for the United States?)

  Speakers

  Robert Z. Lawrence is Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He currently serves as Faculty Chair of The Practice of Trade Policy executive program at Harvard Kennedy School. He served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1998 to 2000. Lawrence has also been a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has taught at Yale University, where he received his PhD in economics. His research focuses on trade policy. He is the author of Crimes and Punishments? Retaliation under the WTO; Regionalism, Multilateralism and Deeper Integration; Single World, Divided Nations?;andCan America Compete? He is coauthor of Has Globalization Gone Far Enough? The Costs of Fragmentation in OECD Markets (with Scott Bradford); A Prism on Globalization; Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade; A Vision for the World Economy; and Saving Free Trade: A Pragmatic Approach. Lawrence has served on the advisory boards of the Congressional Budget Office, the Overseas Development Council, and the Presidential Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy. Chair - Guntram Wolff, Bruegel

  Practical details

  • Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
  • Time: 13 June 2013, 12:45 - 14:30 (Sandwiches will be available before the event)
  • Contact: matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org

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• Antitrust Damages: the European Commission’s proposal

  On 11 June 2013 the European Commission adopted a long awaited legislative proposal on the treatment of damage claims in antitrust contexts. The EC Vice-President Joaquín Almunia has announced that the proposal will be discussed by the European Parliament in the coming weeks. The initiative aims at allowing victims of antitrust abuses to obtain compensation in any of the EU (soon) 28 Member States in a consistent and effective manner. It should also contain measures to prevent the risk that whistle-blowers’ incentives to collaborate with antitrust authorities would be jeopardized. In this Competition Policy Lab seminar, Carles Esteva Mosso, Director of Policy and Strategy at Dg-Competition will introduce the EC proposal. A discussion led by Maarten Pieter Schinkel, Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam and ACLE, will follow. SAVE THE DATE: the next Competition Policy Lab will be on 18th July and it will focus on merger control and the new proposed rules for minority shareholding acquisitions. Guest speakers: Johannes Luebking, Giulio Federico (EC), Yossi Spiegel (Tel Aviv University)

  Speakers

  • Carles Esteva Mosso, European Commission
  • Discussant - Maarten Pieter Schinkel, University of Amsterdam and ACLE
  • Chair - Mario Mariniello, Bruegel

  Practical details

  • Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
  • Time: 20 June 2013, 12:00 - 13:15 (A light lunch will be served after the event)
  • Contact: Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org

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• Removing Barriers to Venture Capital Investment in Europe: facilitating the growth of innovative internet and ICT firms

  Financing innovative young firms is an increasing challenge in Europe. Data on venture capital investment in Europe consistently shows a significant gap in comparison to the U.S. In addition, the market in Europe is very fragmented. What can be done to remove the barriers to investment, particularly for firms in the fast-growing internet and ICT sectors? This discussion will look into some of the possible explanations for the large differences in VC investment in the Europe and the U.S. and put forward suggestions for addressing some of the barriers including labor markets, exit markets, bankruptcy law, copyright, data protection and privacy law. New reports will be presented, highlighting the regulatory barriers facing venture capital firms interested in investing in Europe. This will be followed by a policy panel to further discuss the findings and suggest next steps in terms of both policy and research.

  Speakers

  Overview and presentation of research

  • Karen Wilson, Visiting Fellow, Bruegel
  • Louise Marston, Head of Innovation and Economic Growth, NESTA
  • Fredrik Erixon, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

  Policy panel

  • Anne Bucher, Director for Structural Reforms and Competitiveness, DG Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission
  • Dr. Alexander von Gabain, Chairman of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
  • Thibault Kleiner, member of the cabinet, VP Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda, European Commission

  Moderation

  • Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow, Bruegel
  • Karen Wilson, Visiting Fellow, Bruegel

  About the speakers

  Louise Marston joined NESTA in October 2009 and is now Head of Innovation and Economic Growth. She has authored recent NESTA reports on the semiconductor cluster in the South West and the need for collaboration in the biomedical industry. Louise also co-ordinates the Hot Topics series of events on emerging technologies. Prior to joining NESTA, Louise was an Investment Analyst at an active venture investment firm Blenheim Chalcot, where she supported the investment portfolio and led on strategic projects. Louise has previously worked as a Project Manager and Business Analyst for IMS Health, a pharmaceutical data company, and has a background in software development and services. Louise has a MA in Natural Sciences (Neuroscience) from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Computer Science from UCL. Fredrik Erixon is a Swedish economist and writer. He is the Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), a world-economy think tank based in Brussels he co-founded in 2006 together with Professor Razeen Sally. Since then Erixon has led the development of ECIPE to become one of Brussels leading research-based institutes. Fredrik Erixon is the author of several books and studies in the fields of international economics, economic policy, and regulatory affairs (welfare reforms, healthcare competition policy, et cetera). He has also advised several governments in Europe and the rest of the world, and is a frequent speaker at conferences.Prior to starting ECIPE, Erixon was an Adviser to the British government and the Chief Economist of Timbro, a Swedish think tank. He started his career as an economist in the Prime Ministers Office in Sweden and has later worked as an economist at the World Bank and for JP Morgan as an emerging market analyst. Erixon was educated at the University of Oxford, London School of Economics and Uppsala University. Anne Bucher, is Director for Structural Reforms and Competitiveness in DG Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission, a position she has held since March 2011. She has been in the European Commission since 1983. Trained as an economist and statistician in Paris (PHD in macroeconomics - Ecole des Hautes Etudes and master degree from Ecole Nationale de Statistique et d'Administration Economique), Anne Bucher has worked in various fields of European policies: macroeconomic forecast and models, structural funds, evaluation of employment policies, enlargement, development aid, information society strategy and economic analysis of EU tax policy. She has held various management positions, including administrative management positions for HR and budget management. Dr. Alexander von Gabain, is Chairman of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). He is also co-founder, CSO and Member of the Management Board of Intercell AG, Professor of Microbiology at Max Perutz Laboratories in Vienna and foreign adjunct professor at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. Dr. Von Gabain obtained his PhD in Genetics at the University of Heidelberg and a Postdoctorate at Stanford University. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a Professor at the University of Umeå and at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden and advisor to pharmaceutical companies. During 1992-1998, he was Chair of Microbiology at the University of Vienna at the Vienna Biocenter Campus, Austria. In 1998 he co-founded the biotech company Intercell AG and served as CEO there until 2005. He is a member of several professional organizations and serves in the Supervisory Boards of biotech enterprises. Thibaut Kleiner is a member of cabinet of Neelie Kroes, where he is in charge of Internet policies at large (Net futures, media & data, trust and security, Internet governance) and robotics. He has worked for the European Commission since 2001, occupying a number of positions, notably in the field of competition policy, where he was head of unit in charge of coordination, and member of cabinet of Neelie Kroes in her previous mandate, where he notably supervised state aid (including during the banking crisis). An economist by training, he holds a Master from HEC Paris and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

  Practical details

  • Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
  • Time: 25 June 2013, 12:30 - 14:30 (A light lunch will be served after the event)
  • Contact: Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org

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• The future of health spending and the implications for policy

  Health care expenditures are on the rise for numerous reasons. At the same time short term austerity measures and long-term financial sustainability issues impose tough trade-offs between different spending categories. In this OECD-Bruegel event Joaquim Oliveira Martins and Christine de La Maisonneuve will present a new OECD-report on health and long-term care expenditures projections over the next 50 years. Based on this input a panel consisting of Rodrigo Moreno-Serra (Imperial College), William Dorling (Pfizer), Christoph Schwierz (DG ECFIN) and the authors of the OECD report will discuss the challenges arising from the projected health care spending for public finance and how they can be addressed. This event is organised jointly by Bruegel and the OECD

  Speakers

  • Rodrigo Moreno-Serra,Imperial College’s Centre for Health Policy
  • William Dorling, Pfizer Worldwide Policy
  • Christoph Schwierz, European Commission, DG ECFIN
  • Joaquim Oliveira Martins, OECD
  • Christine de La Maisonneuve, OECD
  • Chair - Guntram Wolff, Bruegel

  Practical details

  • Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
  • Time: 26 June 2013, 12:00 - 13:45 (A light lunch will be served after the event)
  • Contact: Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org

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• Border carbon adjustment: a trade perspective

  In the absence of an international climate agreement, the European Union unilaterally introduced in 2005 the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Several other countries and regions have implemented, or are currently considering whether to implement, national climate regulations. A highly contentious issue is whether such unilateral national climate policies should apply not only to domestically-produced products but also to imported products, that is, whether measures to regulate emissions from domestic production should – or even can legally – be complemented with border carbon adjustments (BCAs). Such trade measures have been proposed not only in Europe and in Australia, where carbon emission measures have already been introduced, but also in the United States, where the possibility of introducing border carbon adjustments is generally viewed as a political sine qua non condition for the imposition of carbon caps on domestic production. Other countries are considering such measures as well. The purpose of the workshop is to discuss the economic arguments for and against the introduction of BCAs from an international perspective.

  Agenda

  9.45: Introduction
  
  10.00-11.00 Border Carbon Adjustments from an International Perspective
  • Henrik Horn, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Entwined and Bruegel
  • André Sapir, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Bruegel
  11.00-12.00 A Guide for the Concerned: Guidance on the elaboration and implementation of border carbon adjustment
  • Aaron Cosbey, International Institute for Sustainable Development
  12.00-13.00 Border Carbon Adjustments and the Potential for Protectionism
  • Peter Holmes, University of Sussex
  • Jim Rollo, University of Sussex
  14.00-15.00 Mitigating Carbon Leakage in the EU-ETS: State of Play and Main Policy Options
  • Paul Trivaudey, French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
  15.00-16.00 Panel discussion on EU and US policy towards BCAs
  • Aaron Coseby, International Institute for Sustainable Development
  • EU official (tbc)
  16.00 Conclusion

  Practical details

  • Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Bruxelles
  • Time: 28 June 2013, 9.45 - 16:15
  • Contact: Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org

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• The Single Resolution Mechanism and the limits of bank regulation

  A key element of the EU Banking Union is on the political Agenda: The Single Resolution Mechanism. The new authority will touch complicated and sensible legal, regulatory and political dimensions. It raises severe questions on legitimacy,institutional setting, funding and political influence. Missing democratic legitimation in past financial crisis decisions, we need a public debate on essential regulatory initiatives. Change in mind, governance and adequate financial regulation can only come from having this ongoing debate. Bringing together academics, regulators,politicians and industry experts, we will stimulate the discussion on the design of the Resolution Authority, the impact of regulatory policy and the responsibility of financial institutions. For this, the conference gives an inspiring opportunity. The event is organised jointly by:

  • Institute for Bank- and Capital Market-Law at Humboldt-University Berlin
  • Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
  • Bruegel
  • Financial Risk and Stability Network

  Practical details

  Date: 8 November 2013, 9:00 - 17:30
  Venue: Humboldt-University, Fritz-Reuter Saal, Dorotheenstraße 24, 10117 Berlin-Mitte Berlin
  Contact: Martin Aehling, Financial Risk and Stability Network, martin.aehling[at]frsn.de

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