EEAG European Economic Advisory Group at CESifo

Report on the European Economy 2004

Introduction

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Foreword

This is the third annual report of the European Economic Advisory Group (EEAG) at CESifo. CESifo is one of the world’s prominent research networks of professional economists including more than 350 university professors from 22 countries. Its home base is the Ifo Institute for Economic Research and the Center for Economic Studies (CES) of Ludwig Maximilian’s University, Munich, with about 90 researchers in all fields of economics.
The EEAG, which is in toto responsible for this report, consists of a team of eight economists from seven European countries. It is chaired by Giancarlo Corsetti (European University Institute, Florence) and includes Lars Calmfors (University of Stockholm), Seppo Honkapohja (Universities of Helsinki and Cambridge, vice chairman), John Kay (St. John’s College, Oxford),Willi Leibfritz (OECD, Paris), Gilles Saint- Paul (University of Toulouse), Xavier Vives (INSEAD, Fontainebleau), and myself. All members participate on a personal basis. They do not represent the views of the organisations they are affiliated with. The aim of this report is to comment on the state and the prospects of the European economy.With the support of the Ifo Institute it provides a European economic forecast and discusses topical economic issues that are of general interest to policy makers, managers, academics and the European public in general.
I wish to thank the members of the group for investing their time in a challenging project and I also gratefully acknowledge valuable assistance provided by Doina Radulescu and Frank Westermann (assistants to the group); Gebhard Flaig,Wolfgang Nierhaus,Wolfgang Meister and Oscar-Erich Kuntze (economic forecast); Siegfried Schönherr and Martin Werding (comments); Heidi Sherman, Anne Heritage and Paul Kremmel (editing); as well as Elsita Walter (statistics and graphics) and Elisabeth Will (typesetting and layout).
Hans-Werner Sinn President, Ifo Institute and CESifo Professor of Economics and Public Finance, University of Munich Munich, 5 February 2004