The changing narrative of the euro crisis

Diego Zuluaga // 05.10.2016
When the eurozone debt crisis broke out in late 2009, there was considerable agreement among policymakers that budgetary prudence and …

The fight of a generation – literally

Diego Zuluaga // 21.09.2016
 
Economic debates are often presented as a contest between two opposing interest groups. Marxian socialism pitted capital against labour. …

Death by infrastructure spending

Diego Zuluaga // 13.09.2016
 
Infrastructure investment is often presented by policymakers as a silver bullet in times of recession or sluggish growth. Public …

Beware the Commission’s rotten Apple ruling

The European Commission has ordered Ireland to recover €13bn worth of allegedly unpaid taxes from Apple. Reception of the decision has been mixed, with …

Beware the Commission’s rotten Apple ruling

7 September 2016
The European Commission has ordered Ireland to recover €13bn worth of allegedly unpaid taxes from Apple. Reception of the decision has …

The EU and economic freedom: a complicated relationship

Diego Zuluaga // 03.08.2016
 
The Wednesday Briefing is a weekly free-market commentary on topical economic issues by our Head of Research, Diego Zuluaga. …

The EU and economic freedom: a complicated relationship

3 August 2016
The European Union is all things to all people. To proponents on the right, it is a force for international cooperation, …

Radical, but not equal: assessing corporate tax reforms

27 July 2016
A tax on turnover would tax profitable and loss-making firms equally, potentially posing an insurmountable hurdle to struggling firms, and eliminating …

Corporation tax reform: theory, evidence and avoidance

06 July 2016
There are efforts at national, EU and international levels to put forward significant reforms to the corporate tax system. The 20th century …

Public opinion is turning against free trade and globalisation

Diego Zuluaga // 05.07.2016
This article is based on a presentation delivered at the Restructuring of the Global Economy (ROGE) conference, Oxford University.
 
It …

Brexit: a natural experiment for the EU

29 June 2016
Can a country do better after leaving the EU? Indeed, we can perform an even more granular analysis and seek to …

Blazing Trails in a Post-Brexit Europe

Diego Zuluaga // 22.06.2016
Tomorrow, the British electorate will decide on a question which, more than any other, has divided voters and the political …

The policy implications of the sharing economy

15 June 2016
The emergence of the sharing economy is rapidly changing the way in which goods and services are provided across the EU. …

France: the hottest economy you’ve never heard of

08 June 2016
France badly needs economic reform. But we shouldn’t let negative news headlines blind us to the fact that the French economy …

The IMF gets it wrong on 'neoliberalism'

Diego Zuluaga // 03.06.2016
An article from the IMF’s magazine, entitled ‘Neoliberalism: Oversold?’, has been making the rounds on social media. This is not …

The IMF gets it wrong on ‘neoliberalism’

Diego Zuluaga // 03.06.2016
An article from the IMF’s magazine, entitled ‘Neoliberalism: Oversold?’, has been making the rounds on social media. This is not …

The EU goes digital (sort of)

01 June 2016
While entrepreneurship and innovation are flourishing across much of the EU’s private sector, public policy has lagged behind most recent technological …

Tobacco harm reduction and the new TPD

25 May 2016
The new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) dramatically tightens regulation of cigarettes, rolling tobacco and e-cigarettes. Yet, it is unclear that it …

Pricking the balloon on Eurozone deflation

18 May 2016
As growth rates in the Eurozone gather steam, policymakers’ concerns are increasingly shifting to low inflation. According to Eurostat, consumer prices …

Pricking the balloon on Eurozone deflation

Diego Zuluaga // 18.05.2016
As growth rates in the Eurozone gather steam, policymakers’ concerns are increasingly shifting to low inflation. According to Eurostat, consumer …

TTIP: a pre-mortem

Diego Zuluaga // 11.05.2016
To say that negotiations for an EU-U.S. trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), have lost momentum since …

Bans on homesharing won’t redress Berlin’s housing shortage

4 May 2016
A law banning short-term apartment rentals just came into force in Berlin. The measure, which was passed in 2014 but only …

Basel, RWA and rules of thumb in risk management

Diego Zuluaga // 28.04.2016
The Institute for International Finance has just released an interesting briefing paper on the trends in risk-weighted assets (RWA) among …

The Commission’s Android probe draws the wrong lessons from the past

Diego Zuluaga // 18.04.2016
It is expected that the EU’s competition authorities will this week issue Google with a formal charge sheet, known as …

The OECD’s crusade for more financial regulation is misguided

Diego Zuluaga // 30.03.2016
A blog post by the OECD linking the rise of finance to lower economic growth and higher inequality made the …

Regulatory inertia is holding back the digital economy in Europe

Diego Zuluaga // 23.03.2016
It is a cliché to observe that digital technology is changing the way we work and interact with each other. …

Hayek would have voted to remain

Diego Zuluaga // 17.03.2016
To conjecture what Hayek’s stance might have been on Britain’s EU referendum and the current state of the European project …

EU Antitrust vs. Google

Istituto Bruno Leoni, 20 January 2016
The extent of market power enjoyed by Google is a debatable question. The antitrust literature emphasises the importance …

Commissioner Vestager misunderstands where the value of data lies

Diego Zuluaga // 18.01.2016
EurActiv reports this morning on a speech delivered by Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager at the DLD conference in Munich on …

Why regulating online platforms is a bad idea

Diego Zuluaga // 21.12.2015
Today, EPICENTER releases its latest briefing, on the economics and regulation of online platforms. The prospect of regulatory intervention into …

Searchers and planners in the climate change debate

Diego Zuluaga // 10.12 .2015
Earlier this week, I wrote about NYU Professor William Easterly’s notion of searchers vs. planners and how it is …

Searchers and planners in economic development

Diego Zuluaga // 08.12.2015
Last week in London, William Easterly delivered the Institute of Economic Affairs’ 24th Annual Hayek Lecture. Easterly, a Professor at …

The UK’s competition watchdog is right to combat taxi protectionism

Diego Zuluaga // 03.12.2015
In a response released yesterday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) slammed measures proposed by Transport for London (TfL) …

The UK's competition watchdog is right to combat taxi protectionism

Diego Zuluaga // 03.12.2015
In a response released yesterday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) slammed measures proposed by Transport for London (TfL) …

The Eurozone’s deposit insurance scheme creates more problems than it solves

Diego Zuluaga // 25.11.2015
The European Commission has released its plan for an EU-wide deposit insurance scheme that will, at first, back up and …

The Mariel boatlift and the economic impact of refugees

Diego Zuluaga // 23.11.2015
Those of you familiar with the 1983 cult classic Scarface by Brian de Palma will remember that it begins with …

Governments should undertake their own corporate tax inversions

Diego Zuluaga // 20.11.2015
The U.S. Treasury has announced measures to prevent American companies from merging with foreign firms and shifting their tax domicile …

Online platforms and the bad economics of politicians

EurActiv reports that the Italian Parliament is scheduled to vote on legislation which would regulate online platforms. The measure has been proposed by a …

Can we have integration without centralisation?

Diego Zuluaga // 13.11.2015
In a new publication, my colleague Philip Booth at the Institute of Economic Affairs makes a resolute case for Britain …

Deregulation and reforms are the missing ingredient in the recovery

Diego Zuluaga // 11.11.2015
Writing in the Financial Times (“In the long shadow of the Great Recession,” 10 November), Martin Wolf meditates on the …

Some cautionary notes on platform regulation

Diego Zuluaga // 03.11.2015
In a post last week, I welcomed Competition and Markets Authority chief Alex Chisholm’s plea for regulatory prudence on online …

A breath of fresh air in digital competition policy

Diego Zuluaga // 27.10.2015
Let’s say it loud and clear: There is hope for EU competition policy! After months of negative headlines and high-profile …

The CCCTB: we know it’s bad, but is it likely?

Diego Zuluaga // 25.10.2015
Here in EPICENTER, our authors have consistently opposed the Commission’s proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base – better …

Little to look forward to in EU corporation tax

Diego Zuluaga // 22.10.2015
We found out yesterday that, according to the European Commission, the tax rulings entered into by Starbucks and Fiat with …