Epicenter Archives
15 September 2023
The relationship between the money supply, demand for money, and price levels is a dynamic force within the economic landscape. It’s important to note …
27 July 2023
The economics literature shows that advertising can increase the sale of individual brands but, in mature markets, does not increase aggregate sales of the …
20 July 2023
Competition is a discovery process between rival firms and can only be explained if the information is imperfect. It is the most effective way …
In July 2023 the European Commission starts the process of designating gatekeepers on digital markets. Large digital companies deemed to have a large user …
5 June 2023
The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the effect of lockdowns, also referred to as ‘Covid restrictions’, ‘social distancing measures’ …
31 May 2023
Germany has taken the top spot as the freest country in Europe once again, with the least amount of nannying regulations like banning, taxing, …
29 March 2029
This paper urges EU decision makers to include transportation and buildings into the already existing Emissions Trading System (ETS). The study found that consolidating …
22 March 2023
This paper urges EU decision makers to avoid entering a tit-for-tat subsidy battle with the Unites States in response to the US Inflation Reduction …
1 February 2023
This paper analyses how excessive taxation and regulations are worsening inflationary pressures in eight European countries. As a result of heavy state intervention, European …
30 June 2022
This paper examines the tax and regulatory policies fuelling inflation across five European countries. The detailed analysis of high price levels in Germany, Italy, …
18 May 2022
It is well known that high production taxes and social contributions in France have been stifling the economy for some time. Prior to the …
23 March 2022
At the end of 2021, the European Commission released a “Proposal for a council directive on ensuring a global minimum level of taxation for …
15 February 2022
The European Commission has proposed a Directive of the European Parliament and Council on improving working conditions on platform work. The proposal lays down …
14 February 2022
From 2023, all EU goods destined for the UK market will need to be certified with a new regulatory customs mark, recognising the regulatory independence of the …
14 October 2021
The voting patterns of political parties in the national parliaments of Greece, Italy and Spain, and of their members of the European Parliament, show …
30 July 2021
As the International Tax Competitiveness Index states, the structure of a country’s tax code is an important determinant of its economic performance. A well-structured …
13 May 2021
The 2021 edition of the Nanny State Index, which has been expanded to 30 countries in Europe, shows that Germany has taken the top spot …
11 May 2021
The taxation of capital—at both the individual and the corporate level – is much debated and affects economic growth by lowering the incentives to …
15 February 2021
The Index of Liberalisation unveils which countries rank best in economic liberalisation and provides insight on countries with the infrastructure to rebound quicker following …
2 February 2021
With the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, the European Union has committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, …
1 February 2021
Since the 2017 constitutional crisis in Catalonia, the momentum to secede from Spain has grown, but the potential economic impact has not been thoroughly …
27 January 2021
The way obesity is measured throughout the EU and OECD countries is significantly flawed. This paper shows that existing international comparisons measuring obesity are …
13 January 2021
The crisis in the rule of law that Poland has witnessed since 2015 must be contained as soon as possible. Any proposal to restore …
16 December 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to serious health and economic emergencies all over the world. Moreover, it has also affected democratic institutions and the …
9 December 2020
Prior to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Lithuanian economy had been enjoying a rapid growth. Yet, while the number of available …
26 November 2020
The access to European Union and the status of EU membership require significant reforms in order for a country to align with the Union’s …
20 November 2020
As a member of various international and European organisations, Poland is bound by the requirement to respect the rule of law so as to …
17 November 2020
The reunification of West Germany and East Germany took place 30 years ago, ending a period of around 45 years during which Germany had …
11 November 2020
With most of the world in a deep economic crisis due to coronavirus and the government reactions to it, knowledge of effective crisis policy …
14 October 2020
The International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI) seeks to measure the extent to which a country’s tax system adheres to two important aspects of tax …
6 October 2020
The European Commission has published a study on working conditions of platform workers. The report identifies key challenges related to platform work, such as …
21 September 2020
The presidential elections in Poland in 2020, which were won by the incumbent Andrzej Duda, the candidate of the ruling Law and Justice party, …
10 September 2020
The Economic Freedom of the World Index measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The …
4 September 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Public Health England (PHE) have been widely criticised for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Serious questions have …
3 September 2020
This position paper is a response to the European Commission’s second phase consultation with social partners. The EC’s initiative has a general objective of …
2 September 2020
Socio-economic systems should be understood as ‘complex’ phenomena that cannot effectively be controlled or managed through central planning. In general, markets and other decentralised …
6 August 2020
Covid–19 is provoking a major reorientation of the foreign policy of the US and Europe. At the heart of this is their changing relationship …
13 July 2020
In 2018 the European Commission presented its proposed EU budget as “new,” “modern” and “focused.” However, in terms of its expenditure and revenue the …
6 July 2020
The World Trade Organization has predicted that global trade in goods will drop by between 13 and 32 per cent in 2020 as a …
25 June 2020
The Covid-19 crisis has provided many grim examples of some familiar problems in health economics and cost-benefit analysis, and of the ‘tragic choices’ that …
18 June 2020
The policy reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic will increase budget deficits massively in all the world’s leading countries. The deficits will to a significant …
14 May 2020
The seminal work on epidemiological models was carried out in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The models have developed substantially since then, but …
11 May 2020
This paper argues that testing participation – and not testing capacity – is the biggest obstacle to a successful “test and isolate” strategy, as …
29 April 2020
Pandemics are a recurring feature of human history. In the modern world, since the 1770s, we have had a series of pandemics, with a …
17 April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious challenge for societies around the world. In response to it not only individuals are changing their behaviour, but …
1 April 2020
This analysis is based on five scenarios for the length of the shutdown and an attempt to rate the industry’s production losses. The scenarios …
1 February 2020
A ban on opening a new supermarket is evidence that people want a new supermarket, for if they did not there would be no …
22 January 2020
Rent controls are now being discussed in cities like Berlin, London, and New York. Sweden has had rent controls since 1942. There are at …
29 December 2019
The idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is currently the subject of much interest and discussion in the UK, with support and opposition …
2 January 2020
For the third year in a row, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute and its partner organisations present the Employment Flexibility Index, that ranks a …
14 November 2019
This study calculates how much UK foreign aid was spent (in 2018 prices) on lifestyle interventions targeting smoking, drinking, eating and sedentary behaviour.UK taxpayers …
23 October 2019
This report compares top effective marginal tax rates on labour income in 41 OECD and EU countries. The top effective marginal tax rate is …
5 September 2019
Across Europe, shadow markets constitute a significant portion of the economy. According to some estimates an average of 16 percent of GDP in EU …
30 August 2019
School of Thought – 101 Great Liberal Thinkers profiles the lives and ideas of some of the leading thinkers on individual liberty – from ancient …
10 July 2019
Education reforms that allow new educational providers to supply schooling into a state system can improve parental satisfaction and raise learning outcomes through consumer …
04 July 2019
Legal interventions in hiring and firing practices are often referred to as employment protection legislation that include working hours, health and safety requirements. The …
26 June 2019
This paper explains why additional taxes on the turnover of companies with a large digital presence would be disproportionate, discriminatory and damage the European …
20 June 2019
Timbro’s methodological distinction in the Authoritarian Populism Index between extreme and authoritarian populist parties is highly relevant in the Greek political environment, as shown …
28 May 2019
MiFID II, together with MiFIR (Regulation (EU) No 600/2014), was intended to create a more transparent, competitive and integrated financial market in the EU …
30 April 2019
Germany has overtaken the Czech Republic to become the EU’s most liberal country, according to the 2019 edition of the Nanny State Index. Finland …
28 February 2019
Following on from research published by the IEA between 2012 and 2014, this discussion paper revisits the issue of state-funded activism in the UK …
26 February 2019
A popular explanation for economic scandals, crises and suboptimal market outcomes is the lack of government regulation. This interpretation is intensively promoted by the …
20 February 2019
Do European companies pay their fair share of tax? Many companies headquartered in France, Germany, Italy and Spain show very low effective corporate tax …
7 February 2019
Mass protests of the “yellow vests” have been taking place in France since 17 November 2018. The catalyst of the demonstration was a fuel …
30 January 2019
The Employment Flexibility Index 2019 of the member states of the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides …
9 January 2019
The White House’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) has published a report: “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism”. It is an interesting report with many …
19 November 2018
The aim of this publication is to present and analyse the results of representative population surveys into public perceptions of the shadow economy and …
10 November 2018
The most obvious benefit of economic freedom is that, as a system, it is the most conducive to widespread prosperity, that is, to high …
28 September
Free trade improves the well-being of all parties to it. The most significant way that trade achieves this outcome is by enabling and incentivising …
10 September 2018
Labour market flexibility may be characterized by the market participants’ abilities to deviate from standard labour regulations and typical forms of employment. Such possibilities …
6 September 2018
The social and fiscal contribution from large companies in France and worldwide remains largely unrecognised. Traditional accounting and financial presentations do not provide for …
Raising mandatory minimum wage might seem to be a simple policy that serves to increase wages for low-income earners. Politicians use this policy with …
25 July 2018
There should be no debate about whether taxes on food, alcohol, tobacco and soft drinks (‘sin taxes’) are regressive. It can be easily demonstrated …
22 June 2018
Economic migrants rarely displace local labour force. Immigrants are more likely to complement existing labour force creating opportunities for growth and bringing needed skills. …
6 June 2018
The popular account of offshore financial centres as hotbeds of tax evasion is an outdated caricature that bears little resemblance to how OFCs operate. …
14 May 2018
It is claimed that robots, algorithms and artificial intelligence are going to destroy jobs on an unprecedented scale. These developments, unlike past bouts of technical …
7 May 2018
Our new league table of nanny state regulation shows that punitive taxation and excessive regulation of safer nicotine alternatives has increased across the EU. …
2 May 2018
The weak global GDP growth since the financial crisis in 2007-2009 has coincided with unusually weak growth in global trade. The average global tariff …
6 April 2018
Several local authorities in Britain have introduced ‘zoning laws’ to restrict fast food outlets within a certain distance of schools. Public Health England, the …
28 February 2018
Financial firms serve many useful functions which individuals and households could scarcely undertake on their own. These functions include maturity transformation, matching lenders and …
16 February 2018
A ‘free’ banking system without a central bank provides incentives for banks to act with restraint. Their lending policies are, in effect, tied to …
5 February 2018
As the world’s leading international financial centre, London faces fascinating opportunities as well as some significant challenges in coming years. This is as a …
29 January 2018
The reselling of tickets for events has a long history, dating back at least to Roman times. Such secondary markets in tickets are no different …
25 January 2018
The rise of the ‘tech giants’ is, of course, a significant commercial threat to more traditional media, but it also raises some potentially important …
13 December 2017
According the latest IBL Super Index, Italy is the sick man of Europe. Despite relatively rosy macroeconomic projections for the whole EU, the gap …
12 December 2017
Denmark, the UK, and Ireland are the leading countries in the 2018 edition of LFMI’s Employment Flexibility Index. Portugal, Luxembourg, and France are the …
29 November 2017
In the last 25 years, the Polish economy has grown faster than the economies of Western Europe and the US, which enabled a significant …
22 November 2017
The picture that emerges from the EC surveys of consumers and business regarding platforms is not of a market in which users are routinely …
7 November 2017
EU central governments use up their resources December 6 on average, 25 days before the end of the year. This is almost seven days …
18 October 2017
This Position Paper is a response to the Reflection Paper on the Future of EU Finances by the European Commission. The goal of this …
The author wishes to thank Oskar Henkow, Rebecca Millar, Anna Sandberg Nilsson and Anders Ydstedt for valuable comments. Summary
As a general rule, …
4 September 2017
The Swedish labor market makes use of twelve different forms of employment subsidies involving three percent of the entire active work force. In this …
27 July 2017
The purpose of this study is to compare the tax and social security burdens of individual employees earning typical salaries in each of the …
11 July 2017
Auktoritär populism har övertagit liberalismens plats som den tredje ideologiska kraften i europeisk politik. Väljarstödet för populistiska partier ligger kvar på rekordhöga nivåer men …
30 June 2017
The situation on the Spanish labour market is being debated by specialists and policy makers with respect to two central questions: on the one …
27 June 2017
In 2017, the average Spaniard will have worked 178 days in order to fulfill their tax obligations. In other words, Tax Freedom Day, calculated …
7 June 2017
Platform businesses bring together distinct but interdependent sets of users in such a way as to improve the welfare of each side of the …
26 May 2017
According to the latest IBL Super Index, the degree of internal divergence within Eurozone countries keeps increasing. This means that the gap between Eurozone …
10 May 2017
The EPICENTER Nanny State Index is the only comprehensive league table of lifestyle regulations. The latest data suggest that the EU is becoming a …
28 April 2017
As the Spanish economy recovers, rethinking education reform should be a top priority. Spanish workers are Europe’s most overqualified, but also suffer from the …
2 March 2017
It is widely believed that healthy eating is relatively expensive whereas ‘junk food’ is relatively cheap. This has led to an assumption that poor diets …
6 February 2017
Decisions on childcare arrangements were largely a private matter until the 1990s. A political consensus has since arisen that government action is needed to …
23 January 2017
This is the first study to estimate the annual savings that overweight and obese people bring UK taxpayers by dying prematurely (in 2016 prices). …
9 January 2017
It is increasingly evident that public pensions are going to be hard to sustain in the future: the ratio of workers to pensioners is …
5 January 2017
People greatly overestimate the immigrant share of the population and many wrongly believe that openness to migration harms Britons’ job prospects, burdens public finances …
4 January 2017
The past record of industrial policy in the UK is a catalogue of waste and ineffectiveness. By the end of the 1970s it was …
14 December 2016
The development of personal pensions at the national and cross-border levels is hindered by high compulsory payments to public pension funds, restrictions on the …
04 November 2016
In recent years, smartphone-enabled applications such as Uber have gone a long way to resolve the market imperfections which gave rise to taxi regulation …
23 October 2016
The European Commission (EC) has renewed its proposals on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) initiative. The initiative refers to two proposals by …
Sean Rickard // 24.10.2016
The precautionary principle provides non-farming interest groups with a pseudo-official means of influencing policy. The result is a drift towards overregulation and regulatory failures …
Diego Zuluaga // 04.05.2016 A law banning short-term apartment rentals just came into force in Berlin. The measure, which was passed in 2014 but …
Istituto Bruno Leoni, 20 January 2016 The extent of market power enjoyed by Google is a debatable question. The antitrust literature emphasises the importance …
Istituto Bruno Leoni, November 2015 The Istituto Bruno Leoni’s Index of Liberalizations aims at identifying both the barriers to competition and the best practices …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2015 A new report by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute looks at perceptions and prevalence of the shadow economy …
Gabriel A. Giménez Roche, November 2015 In its latest study, the Institut économique Molinari shows that corporate taxation continues to slow down economic recovery …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2015 The European Commission has re-launched the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) initiative. CCCTB refers to a proposal …
Cécile Philippe and Nicolas Marques, November 2015 According to Eurostat data, the French government will have used up all of its resources by November …
Philip Booth, November 2015 The UK’s current devolution settlement leads to unrepresentative government and has an inbuilt bias towards “big government”. This situation is …
Nicolò Zanon, November 2015 In this IBL Occasional Paper, the author – a Justice of Italy’s Constitutional Court – discusses the legal and economic …
Christopher Snowdon, October 2015 In October 2015, David Cameron said: “Britain has the lowest social mobility in the developed world.” No such …
Frédéric Sautet, September 2015 Following a series of volume decreases in sales of traditional cigarettes in France, sales appear to be stabilizing …
Cécile Philippe, June 2015 The Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy for Europe includes several initiatives to be delivered by the end of …
30 April 2015 The benchmark for assessing the legitimacy of any tax measure is the overall tax regime of the country in …
Tom Packer and Matthew Sinclair, March 2015 The UK is highly centralised and devolution combined with fiscal decentralisation could bring significant economic …
26 March 2015 A review of the allegations commonly made against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the prospective EU-US free-trade deal.
Frédéric Sautet, March 2015 Long denigrated and accused of every imaginable evil, the tobacco market is undergoing a renaissance with innovations that …
Ralph Buckle, Tim Hewish, John C. Hulsman, Iain Mansfield, Robert Oulds, February 2015 It is quite possible that there will be a referendum on …
Simona Benedettini and Carlo Stagnaro, 16 January 2015 The liberalisation and integration of European energy retail markets is still far from complete. Retail …
Serena Sileoni, December 2014 Antitrust policy is an important part of European Union jurisprudence, yet its control is entrusted to procedures which do …
Ryan Bourne, December 2014 The UK tax system is incoherent. Even ignoring benefits styled as tax credits and the withdrawal of child benefit, taxpayers …
Carlo Stagnaro, November 2014 The new edition of Istituto Bruno Leoni’s Index of Liberalizations ranks the UK as the most liberalized country in …
Cécile Philippe, Institut Economique Molinari, October 2014 We are living in exciting times, with a whole series of beliefs and certainties being …
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, October 2014 The development of television and mobile communications in the coming years will depend on the …
Frédéric Sautet, Institut Economique Molinari, October 2014 It is vital to understand that the impact of nutrition taxes on the consumption of …
Fredrik Segerfeldt, Timbro, September 2014 In the mid-1700s Europe and North America broke with thousands of years of economic stagnation. When power …
Frédéric Sautet, September 2014 Excess weight and obesity have been on the rise for more than 40 years in many countries around the world. …
Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, September 2014 In practice it is impossible to distinguish between advertising that is intended to be persuasive …
Per Wimmer, Timbro, June 2014 We need clean energy if we are to meet the world’s growing energy needs while avoiding an …
John C. Duffy and Christopher Snowdon, June 2014 Alcohol policy in Britain and many other countries aims to reduce per capita alcohol …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, June 2014 The measures proposed by the European Commission are not suitable for achieving a single market in …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, May 2014 The small loans market (quick credit, pay-day loans) often gets a lot of criticism in the …
Niklas Elert, Timbro, May 2014 Economic growth is not necessarily bad for the environment. On the contrary, a richer world is in …
Gustav Blix, Timbro, May 2014 Five years since the outbreak of the most severe economic crisis of our time, there is widespread …
Julio Pomes, Civismo, March 2014 It is regrettable that, as the United States achieves energy independence, Europe still lacks a strategy to …
Istituto Bruno Leoni, March 2014 Current obligations by the EU to decrease GHG emissions by 20% by 2020 are the most ambitious …
Jagadeesh Gokhale, March 2014 Western governments have developed unfunded social insurance programmes where retiree benefits are paid for from the taxes of …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, March 2014 LFMI made a thorough analysis of European Commission’s proposal for the Tobacco directive (2001/37/EC), related public …
Valentin Petkantchin, March 2014 So‐called “sin” taxes are very much in fashion in France and elsewhere. With the aim of reducing “sinful” …
Francisco Cabrillo, Civismo, February 2014 The combination of ideological prejudice and direct economic interests may yet do a great deal of harm …
Gabriel H. Sahlgren, IEA, January 2014 The benefits of increasing labour participation rates in old age flow both to the individual – …
Colin Robinson, IEA, December 2013 For a short period, around the turn of the millennium, the UK energy market was highly competitive, …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013 The European Commission wants to gather views and additional information on the possible introduction of EU …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013 A growing number of analyses question the long-term sustainability of the current trends in the production …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013 The EU has a clear framework to steer its energy and climate policies up to 2020.The …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, September 2013 Brussels, 24 September – The European Union spends €7.5 billion a year on non-governmental organisations, even …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, September 2013 Regulation, specifically Interchange Fee caps on credit and debit cards, would be especially harmful to consumers …
Per Strömbäck, Timbro, August 2013 Digitalisation carries a promise of growth, jobs and culture to all, but ironically, it is by and …
Friedrich Schneider and Colin Williams, IEA, June 2013 Measurement of the shadow economy is notoriously difficult as it requires estimation of economic …
Christopher Snowdon, IEA, May 2013 Denmark’s fat tax remains the leading example of an ambitious anti-obesity policy being tested in the real …
Gabriel H. Sahlgren, IEA , May 2013 Higher state pension ages are not only possible (given longer life expectancy) and desirable (given …
Ivar Virgin, Timbro, April 2013 By 2050 the world will need to produce almost twice as much food and feed in the …
Christopher Snowdon, March 2013 With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’ with the public emerged in …
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, January 2013 The decision by the American antitrust regulator to acquit Google from charges of manipulating its …
Sushil Mohan, Sangeeta Khorana and Homagni Choudhury, IEA, November 2012 Non-tariff barriers are an important impediment to trade for less developed countries. …
Philip Booth, et al., IEA, November 2012 We need an entirely new approach to regulation across the financial sector which is based …
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, October 2012 The break-up of the Telecom Italia network, while positive from a market competition perspective, could …
Waldemar Ingdahl, Timbro, June 2012 Every year, between 180 and 260 people in Sweden die as a result of antibiotic resistance. Responsibility …
Mattias Svensson, Timbro, May 2012 For the past 20 years, Sweden has had considerably freer alcohol rules, not least thanks to EU …
Civismo, March 2012 Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, has revolutionised world energy markets, making the United States into a net exporter of natural …
Erik Lakomaa, Timbro, March 2012 There are no historical examples of a raw material running out. Even if the available amount of …
Juergen Donges, Civismo, June 2011 The cost of Ms Merkel’s decision to close all nuclear power stations by 2022 will be paid …
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, May 2011 It should be understood that even the best sounding initiatives can be bogged down by the …
Luciano Lavecchia and Carlo Stagnaro, May 2010 The European Union has committed itself to increase the share of renewable energy up to …
Sushil Mohan, IEA, November 2010 This important study, whilst not doubting the position that Fair Trade is part and parcel of a …
Geoffrey Wood, et al., IEA, September 2009 How can future economic crises be avoided? A special issue of IEA journal Economic Affairs …
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, September 2009 Can the supply of material on the web be regulated? How to take action on …
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