The journal Intereconomics, published bi-monthly by CEPS and the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW), features articles dealing with economic and social policy issues affecting Europe. Each issue contains a Forum section offering an in-depth exploration of a selected topic. All contributions to the Forum section in each issue, as well as the Editorial, are available for free downloading from the CEPS website at the links below (for full content, see www.intereconomics.eu).
Abstarct: Vigorous debate over the effectiveness of the fiscal adjustment programmes for the crisis-stricken countries in the euro zone has grown quite polarised. In this Forum, several experts use analytical, evidence-based approaches to gauge the effectiveness of these programmes. The role played by the estimates of the fiscal multipliers that the Commission, IMF and ECB used to structure the adjustment programmes is crucial to this debate. If these multipliers were underestimated, as the IMF itself claims, then the negative impact of the fiscal restructuring on already fragile economies would also have been underestimated. Several authors examine the available evidence to determine whether the adjustments programmes were fl awed from the outset. Another contribution analyses the effectiveness of structural reforms when monetary policy rates are near the zero lower bound. A final paper uses a case study of Ireland’s recovery thus far to examine the actual effects that the programmes have had on the crisis-stricken countries’ economies.
Authors: Carsten Hefeker, Cinzia Alcidi, Daniel Gros, Alessandro Giovannini, Lukas Vogel, Ansgar Belke, Tim Callan, Claire Keane, Michael Savage, John R. Walsh, Brian Colgan, Eileen Appelbaum.
Editorial: Conflicts in Substance and Style in European Monetary Policy
By Carsten Hefeker
Forum: Crisis-Induced Fiscal Restructuring in Europe
By Cinzia Alcidi, Daniel Gros, Alessandro Giovannini, Lukas Vogel, Ansgar Belke, Tim Callan, Claire Keane, Michael Savage, John R. Walsh, Brian Colgan.
Letter from America: Regulation Of Private Equity in the U.S. Reveals Deep Problems for Investors
By Eileen Appelbaum
