Cost Benefit Analysis of the Community Patent
by Bruno van Pottelsberghe on 23 December 2009
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Category: WORKING PAPERS
Topics: European and global governance, Research, innovation and growth
The creation of a European Community Patent (COMPAT) came a step closer this month when Sweden brokered a preliminary agreement on the issue. In this working paper, Senior Resident Fellow Bruno van Pottelsberghe uses simulations to take a look at the advantages, disadvantages, winners and losers from the creation of the COMPAT. He finds that it would drastically reduce the relative patenting costs for applicants while generating more income for the European Patent Office and increased savings for the business sector. He also explains that the lost of economic rents for patent attorneys, translators and lawyers specialised in patent litigation and the drop of controlling power for national patent offices may explain why there has been such resistance to the COMPAT thus far.
Banking Crisis Management in the EU: An Interim Assessment
by Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir on 09 December 2009
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Category: WORKING PAPERS
Topics: Financial markets and regulation, European and global governance
Director Jean Pisani-Ferry and Senior Fellow André Sapir provide an in-depth examination of the the banking crisis in the European Union, starting with a discussion of the pre-crisis banking landscape and including an assessment of the management of the crisis and the lessons learned going forward. The authors argue that the EU was institutionally ill-prepared to manage the crisis, with the response characterised by ad hoc actions and a lack of transparency. They say, however, that coordination has remarkably not been impeded by a divide within the euro area and policy performance has been better than expected given the sub-optimal nature of EU financial institutional arrangements.
The Crisis: Policy Lessons and Policy Challenges
by Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Benoît Coeuré, Pierre Jacquet, Jean Pisani-Ferry on 02 December 2009
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Category: WORKING PAPERS
Topics: Budgetary and monetary policies, Financial markets and regulation, European and global governance
Bruegel Director Jean Pisani-Ferry, with Agnès Bénassy-Quéré (CEPII, University Paris-Ouest and Ecole Polytechnique, Paris), Benoît Coeuré (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris) and Pierre Jacquet (ENPC, Paris, and Agence Française de Développement) provide an in-depth analysis of the financial crisis. The authors review the main causes of the crisis, pointing to three different, non-mutually exclusive lines of explanation: wrong incentives in the financial sector, unsustainable macroeconomic outcomes, and misunderstood and mismanaged systemic complexity. They also discuss supervisory and regulatory reform going forward, including an examination of the issues of moral hazard, the separation of retail and investment banking, the desirable size of financial institutions, risk management, the role of central banks, and other issues.
This working paper was previously published as CEPII (Centre d'études prospectives et d'informations internationales) working document 2009-28.
The impact of the crisis on budget policy in Central and Eastern Europe
by Zsolt Darvas on 30 July 2009
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Category: WORKING PAPERS
Topics: Budgetary and monetary policies, New Member States, Enlargement and Neighbourhood
After drawing some lessons for fiscal policy from previous emerging market crises, Zsolt Darvas concludes with some thoughts on the appropriate policy response from a more normative perspective. The key message of the paper is that the crisis should be used as an opportunity to introduce reforms to avoid future pro-cyclical fiscal policies, to increase the quality of budgeting and to increase credibility. These reforms should include fiscal responsibility laws comprising medium-term fiscal frameworks, fiscal rules, and independent fiscal councils. When fiscal consolidation is accompanied by fiscal reforms that increase credibility, non- Keynesian effects may offset to some extent the contraction caused by the consolidation.
Reframing the EU budget- decision-making process
by Susanne Neheider, Indhira Santos on 31 May 2009
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Category: WORKING PAPERS
Topics: Budgetary and monetary policies
This paper traces the history of the EU budget and draws lessons for the review to come. Whatever reforms are proposed, the authors believe that they must serve to shift spending to policy areas and instruments where the EU can best add value while at the same time recognising the political need for member states to present EU budget negotiation results in ‘net-balance‘ terms. A two-stage negotiation is proposed: first member states should negotiate and agree on what constitute EU public goods. Everything else would thereafter - by default - be deemed redistributive/compensatory spending to be financed on the basis of member states‘ current overall net balances.