Morocco’s Tax policy: The urgent need for tax system reform
by Mohamed Moutii 29 September 0
Morocco is one of the most dynamic economies in the African continent. It has a remarkable reputation in the region for opening its economy, privatization, and increasing the role of the private sector. However, Moroccan governments have consistently neglected to reform the tax system and thus (...)
Pay-as-you-go state pensions: What are German parties planning?
by Fabian Kurz, Florian Rösch, Translated by Anna-Maria Kohnke 15 September 0
“Pensions are safe”, former German labour secretary Norbert Blüm promised during the 1986 electoral campaign. Thirty-five years later, the future of Germany’s public pension scheme plays an important role in political campaigns once again. This article considers what today’s main political parties (...)
Europeans’ attitudes Towards Vaccination
by Sergio Beraldo 8 September 0
Vaccination is among the most successful public health measures available to society. In addition to preventing diseases, it dramatically reduces healthcare costs. In the case of the Covid-19 pandemics these costs can be quite significant. According to Fair Health - an independent non-profit (...)
Ten years after the Arab spring: Is there a new uprising on the horizon?
by Mohamed Moutii 1 September 0
In early 2011, an unprecedented wave of political uprisings swept the Arab world. It was the so-called Arab Spring. Protesters in several Arab countries took to the street and demanded changes in governments, freedom, bread, and dignity. The main slogan was "the people want to bring the regimes (...)
Work before pleasure?
by Fabian Kurz, Translation by Anna-Maria Kohnke 25 August 0
A four-day workweek or Universal Basic Income (UBI) straight away? Demands for shorter labour time, preferably complemented with compensatory wage increases, are a must-have for any electoral campaign. But do we really work more, at the expense of time spent with the family or leisurely (...)
Mandatory green pass? Just the latest episode of spiralling state interventionism
by Riccardo de Caria 4 August 0
Much of the socio-economic damage linked to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from poor regulation: the coronavirus would certainly have caused much less damage in contexts more respectful of the principle of individual responsibility. Unfortunately, poorly conceived regulation continues to lead (...)
The proposal for a minimal global corporate tax: G-7 in the role of a taxman
by Krassen Stanchev 21 July 0
Edmund Burke once said that “No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy”. In contrast to this principle, however, in June and July finance ministers and central bankers met in London and Venice to check the (...)
Call for research proposals - guidelines and information
by IREF 15 July 0
IREF is a free-market oriented think tank. It promotes ideas, events, and academic research. With regard to research, IREF supports original projects that lead to the production of papers of academic quality of at least 7,000 words. This support is not a prize to published work, nor is it an (...)
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: the biggest trade bloc in history
by Mohamed Moutii 14 July 0
In spite of the attacks it has suffered in the past years, globalization is doing well. In particular, last November free trade supporters celebrated the birth of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement that includes the members of the Association of (...)
200 years of modern Greece
by Aristides Hatzis 7 July 0
„I hope that our government, more enlightened and more liberal than in the past, will be in the future the true friend of the best and noblest cause that exists; and that the name of England will forever be dear to the Greeks.“ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in a letter to Alexandros Mavrokordatos (...)