New IREF Working Paper: fair income inequality?

ECB calls for European Integration via a Common Fiscal Policy Response

The consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown: what does history teach us?

(Not) Making Good the COVID-19-Related Damages: A Law and Economics Lesson

Venture Capital in Germany: Nothing ventured, nothing gained

COVID-19 Responses Attempt to Pull Political Leaders Across Debt Mutualisation Red Lines

How much of today’s inequality is unfair?
By Pablo Duarte

WP 2020-03.

New working paper: certified corona immunity as a resource

In a new IREF Working Paper, David Stadelmann (Bayreuth University and IREF) and his co-authors discuss how the corona epidemic can be made less burdensome. They focus on the role of those who are immune after recovering from the illness and do not pose any health risks to others. The authors (...)

The Riddle of Populism and Ideological Polarization: the Difficulty to Live Without Both

The literature has put forward two main arguments to explain the recent rise of populist parties and their electoral success. On the one hand, commentators have highlighted the rising level of uncertainty about the economy and grievances among the losers in global markets. Resentment, it is (...)

Packaging and the climate change

Online shopping is increasingly popular. According to a survey from 2019, almost 90 percent of 25- to 44-year-olds had ordered something online during the previous three months. Even half of those aged 65 or more confessed they shopped online. However, online shopping is also criticised for (...)

Certified Corona-Immunity as a Resource and Strategy to Cope with Pandemic Costs
By Reiner Eichenberger, Rainer Hegselmann, David Savage, David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler

WP 2020-02.
A pandemic is not only a biological event and a public health disaster, but it also generates impacts that are worth understanding from a societal, historical, and cultural perspective. In this contribution, we argue that as the disease spreads, we are able to harness a valuable (...)

The twentieth anniversary of Euro and its weight as an international currency

When they introduced the euro, European governments were expecting that the new currency would rival the dollar on international markets. Twenty years later, the euro is still far behind on that account. A recent paper by Ethan Ilzetzki, Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (Why is the Euro (...)

Do Central Banks Intend to Launch Central Bank Digital Currencies?

A substantial and growing amount of press attention has been devoted to the subject of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) since last year’s announcement of Libra which spooked regulators at central banks who are petrified of losing control of the mint. Central banks have a mixed track (...)

New Working Paper: To whom do MPs cater?

The recent decision of the German Bundestag against the introduction of an opt out solution for organ donation has surprised many people. After all, the two leading health politicians of the coalition, CDU Health Minister Jens Spahn and SPD Health politician Karl Lauterbach, had publicly (...)

Happiness, populist parties and the virtue in the middle

Recently, a new "specter" has been haunting Europe: populist parties (left or right, here we have the full menu) appear to gain more and more approval at the polls. In some cases, they also manage to win the elections and enter the cabinet. From Hungary to Poland, Spain, Italy (and, according (...)

Adjusting to Climate Change: Markets help

Climate scientists warn against the possible consequences of anthropogenic climate change. Rising average temperatures make extreme weather, including draughts and floods, more likely; rising sea levels threaten populations in coastal regions. An international political agreement was to limit (...)