Project blog
Grading the Big Pandemic Test
27 November 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
The results of the second European COVID-19 lockdown remain to be seen, but one thing is already clear. While Europe may wonder whether it was right not to follow Asia’s full pandemic-containment drive, it has no reason to regret having rejected America’s misguided strategy. Read more…
Globalisation needs rebuilding, not just repair
29 October 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
If US President Donald Trump is defeated on November 3, there will be no lack of eagerness to erase his international economic legacy. Policymakers should focus on taking care of global public goods, containing the weaponization of economic relations, and making the international system fairer. Read more…
Europe’s recovery gamble
25 September 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
If the European Union’s new recovery program succeeds, it may ultimately pave the way for the establishment of a fiscal union. But if the EU funds fail to deliver on the plan’s stated goals, or if political interests prevail over economic necessity, federal aspirations will be dashed for a generation. Read more…
Trump’s international economic legacy
27 August 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
If US President Donald Trump loses November’s election, he will most likely leave an insignificant imprint on some parts of the global economic system. But in several others – especially US-China relations – his term in office may well come to be seen as a major turning point. Read more…
The Challenges of the Post-Pandemic Agenda
27 July 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of human societies and fortified support for urgent climate action. But while the small government, free-market template of the last four decades suddenly looks terribly outdated, history suggests that transitions between phases of capitalist development can be harsh and uncertain. Read more…
The Pandemic Response, Act II
29 June 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
As the pandemic recedes in Europe, the public and policymakers alike are increasingly focusing on the pace and strength of economic recovery from the crisis. What should governments do to minimize the lasting damage? Read more…
The Uncertain Pandemic Consensus
29 May 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
By putting the spotlight on the sector where markets perform the worst – health care – the coronavirus pandemic inevitably prompted a welcome reassessment of the relative roles of markets and the state.The question now is which parts of this emerging consensus will survive the acute phase of the crisis. Read more…
Karslruhe: The message in the ruling
10 May 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
By putting the spotlight on the sector where markets perform the worst – health care – the coronavirus pandemic inevitably prompted a welcome reassessment of the relative roles of markets and the state.The question now is which parts of this emerging consensus will survive the acute phase of the crisis. Read more…
Building a Post-Pandemic World Will Not Be Easy
30 April 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Both the COVID-19 crisis and the climate crisis highlight the limits of humanity’s power over nature. But while both remind us that the Anthropocene epoch may jeopardize our continued existence, and that benign everyday behavior can result in catastrophic outcomes, such similarities must not obscure crucial differences. Read more…
Will The Economic Strategy Work?
31 March 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Because even thriving companies can be killed in a matter of weeks by a recession of the magnitude now confronting the world, advanced-economy governments have reacted in a remarkably similar fashion to the COVID-19 crisis. But extending liquidity lifelines to private businesses and supporting idled workers assumes a short crisis. Read more…
A Radical Way Out of the EU Budget Maze
25 February 2020
Jean Pisani-Ferry
It can be tempting to treat European budgetary discussions as a fairly inconsequential distributional game. But with the EU’s role increasingly focused on the provision of public goods, in accordance with its values and priorities, this would be a mistake. Read more…
Europe’s New Green Identity
30 December 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
The European Union has already invested so much of its political capital into the green transition that a failure to fulfill its promise to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 would severely damage its legitimacy. The Green Deal is not just one of many EU projects. It is the Union’s new defining mission. Read more…
Europe can take a bigger role in providing public goods
30 December 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Now that the EU has a newly elected parliament and a new commission, what should be its agenda for the future? Read more…
The UK and the EU Should Prevent Mutual Assured Damage
1 December 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Assuming Brexit happens, future historians will probably remember 2020 as the year when an enfeebled and vulnerable Europe chose to make itself feebler and more vulnerable. The task for its leaders now is to avoid making matters even worse. Read more…
The Great Wealth Tax Debate
31 October 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Inequality is back at the forefront of economic policy debates, for good reason. A wealth tax is no panacea, and not even an ideal response to growing inequality at the top. But absent a better alternative, it can serve as a reasonable second-best policy. Read more…
Dousing the Sovereignty Wildfire
2nd September 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
In time, the current spat between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro regarding the Amazon rainforest may become a mere footnote. But other rows between collective and national interests are sure to erupt, and the world needs to find a way to manage them. Read more…
How long is the head table? An empirical assessment of concentration in global collective action
19th July 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry and Jan Mazza (Bruegel)
It is therefore important, as part of an effort to evaluate impediments and incentives to global collective action, to assess the degree of concentration that characterises key international cooperation fields. In this note we provide such an assessment for eight fields corresponding to major channels of interdependence. Read more…
Farewell, Flat World
1st July 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
The single most important economic development of the last 50 years has been the catch-up in income of a large cohort of poor countries. But that world is gone: in an increasingly digitalized global economy, value creation and appropriation concentrate in the innovation centers and where intangible investments are made. Read more…
“America will wake up” – Jean Pisani-Ferry interviewed on Die Zeit
17 April 2019
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Jean-Pisani Ferry was interviewed by Thomas Fischermann for Die Zeit on globalisation and international collective action in the age of Trump and Xi. The interview was published on 17th April 2019. Read more…
Europe and the New Imperialism
1st April 2019
George Papaconstantinou
For decades, Europe has served as a steward of the post-war liberal order, ensuring that economic rules are enforced and that national ambitions are subordinated to shared goals within multilateral bodies. But with the United States and China increasingly mixing economics with nationalist foreign-policy agendas, Europe will have to adapt. Read more…
A Very Greek Brexit?
14th February 2019
George Papaconstantinou
Unlike the United Kingdom, Greece is one of the European Union’s smaller economies, notorious for its weak institutions and economy, and a net recipient of EU funds. And yet the Grexit near-exit from the EU in 2015 offers important lessons for the final stage of Brexit negotiations. Read more…
The Great Macro Divergence
30th November 2018
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Ten years ago, nearly all advanced economies fell off the cliff simultaneously. Nowadays, they are neither structurally nor cyclically aligned, and they are unevenly vulnerable to recession, which makes international policy coordination both more necessary and more difficult. Read more…
The Global Economy’s Three Games
26th October 2018
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Three major players – the United States, China, and a loose coalition formed by the other members of the G7 – are shaping the future of the international economic and geopolitical order. And they are all engaged in three contests simultaneously, without knowing which one is the most important. Read more…
Report on the mission to New York and Washington DC
16th October 2018
George Papaconstantinou
Together with Jean Pisani-Ferry, I visited New York and Washington DC during the week starting 17th September to present and discuss the Transformation of Global Governance project of the European University Institute with policy-makers, think tanks and academics. Read more…
Can Multilateralism Adapt?
29th June 2018
Jean Pisani-Ferry
Global governance requires rules, because flexibility and goodwill alone cannot tackle the hardest shared problems. With multilateralism under attack, the narrow path ahead is to determine, on a case-by-case basis, the minimum requirements of effective collective action, and to forge agreement on reforms that fulfill these conditions. Read more…