News Archive

To safeguard its future prosperity, Europe needs to tackle three principal challenges: harnessing the full power of the single market, enhancing innovation capabilities, and strengthening the capacity to defend itself. This Policy Brief summarizes the key findings from the 2024 EconPol Annual Conference and recent EconPol research, offering targeted recommendations for European trade, innovation, and defense policy.

In the last issue of our 2024 EconPol newsletter, CESifo President Clemens Fuest summarizes the highlights of the year in his season's greetings. We also look back at our annual conference on how to secure Europe's competitiveness and prosperity.

A new Policy Report evaluates the impact of the newly introduced Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on the EU’s 2030 emission reduction target and analyze different climate clubs with the EU at their core. Findings indicate that EU climate policies do not impose substantial costs, have a limited impact on global emissions, but generate substantial gains from avoided climate damages. The only modest global emission reduction is primarily due to the EU’s relatively small share in global emissions.

In a new Policy Brief, experts from the German Federal Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) argue that completing the Banking Union and advancing the Capital Markets Union are crucial for a successful transformation of the economy.

Europe’s digital economy lags behind the U.S., with cross-border collaboration among software developers 16.4 percent lower than within countries—a barrier 73 percent greater than U.S. states. Cultural and language differences are key obstacles, limiting the potential of Europe’s vast talent pool. Policies focused on reducing these barriers and fostering international teamwork are critical to unlocking Europe’s digital competitiveness.