CESifo Forum is a quarterly economic journal published by the Ifo Institute for the academic and business communities. CESifo Forum is a non-partisan journal with a truly European perspective. It reflects the scope of activities undertaken by CES and Ifo, from scholarly academic research to up-to-date business data. The journal contains short and incisive articles on economic problems written by academics and politicians from various countries.
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After the recent global financial crisis several countries on the eurozone’s south-western periphery, in particular Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, have faced severe difficulties involving the risk of sovereign debt defaults and a new banking crisis. Other EU countries, above all France, were indirectly affected by this crisis, and some eastern European countries are also endangered. Although the EU has tried to contain the euro crisis with extensive rescue operations that have turned the no-bail out philosophy of the Maastricht Treaty on its head, in summer 2010 the danger was not yet over. Obviously, the construction of the eurozone, in particular the rules of conduct for the participating countries, needs to be reconsidered. Yet the euro should not be given up. The euro itself is indispensible for Europe. During the financial crisis it has protected its members from internal exchange rate shocks, it has reduced the European transactions costs for trade, and it is a necessary ingredient of further European integration. Nevertheless, Hans-Werner Sinn argues that the euro has not been as beneficial for all European countries as has often been claimed. The euro has shifted Europe’s growth forces from the center to the periphery. It has not been particularly beneficial for Germany, for example, and because of a lack of proper private and public debt constraints, it has stimulated the periphery of Europe up to the point of overheating, with ultimately dangerous consequences for European cohesion. The current crisis has not put an end to this development. It has flipped a toggle switch that will shift the forces of growth back from the periphery to the center, although the EU rescue measures counteract this. Hans-Werner Sinn criticizes these measures because of the moral hazard effects they generate and proposes a new political design for a more prosperous and stable development of the eurozone.
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Natural Disasters Natural Catastrophes: Do We Have to Live with Them? (Wolfgang Kron) (PDF, 426 KB) The Economics of Natural Disasters (Stéphane Hallegatte and Valentin Przyluski) (PDF, 1.6 MB) The Aftermath of Natural Disasters: Beyond Destruction (Eduardo Cavallo and Ilan Noy) (PDF, 556 KB) Mitigating the Impact of Natural Disasters on Public Finance (David Hofman) (PDF, 351 KB) Natural Disaster Impacts and Fiscal Decentralization (Hideki Toya and Mark Skidmore) (PDF, 530 KB) Globalization and Localization of Disaster Impacts: An Empirical Examination (Yasuhide Okuyama) (PDF, 473 KB) A Hurricane Hits Hawaii: A Tale of Vulnerability to Natural Disasters (Makena Coffmann and Ilan Noy) (PDF, 369 KB) Short-Run Economic Impacts of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita) (Peter Gordon, James E. Moore II, Jiyoung Park and Harry W. Richardson) (PDF, 1.5 MB) Measuring the Regional Economic Response to Hurricane Katrina (Bradley T. Ewing, Jamie B. Kruse and Mark A. Thompson) (PDF, 631 KB) What Should the World Do about Port-au-Prince? An Economic Assessment (Jacob Vigdor) (PDF, 346 KB) The 2010 Volcanic Ash Cloud and Its Financial Impact on the European Airline Industry (Mario Mazzocchi, Francesca Hansstein and Maddalena Ragona) (PDF, 957 KB)
A Euro Rescue Plan (Wolfgang Franz, Clemens Fuest, Martin Hellwig and Hans-Werner Sinn) (PDF, 616 KB) Comments on Recent Fiscal Developments and Exit Strategies (Vito Tanzi) (PDF, 408 KB)
Government Debt in Europe (Christian Breuer and Matthias Müller) (PDF, 1 MB)
Statistics Update (PDF, 494 KB)
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