December 13, 2017

Super Index 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 between Italy and its European partners has increased five fold since 2014.
December 14, 2016

Personal Pensions in the European Union

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 participation of the self-employed and the unemployed, rules governing access to retirement savings, taxation of retirement income and other national legal requirements.
October 24, 2016

Ploughing the Wrong Furrow

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 which are in conflict with the efficient working of the single market.
June 29, 2016

Brexit: a Natural Experiment for the EU

Can a country do better after leaving the EU? Indeed, we can perform an even more granular analysis and seek to establish in which policy areas the greater policy flexibility and decentralisation which comes with departure might outweigh the cost of losing the EU’s four freedoms and its constitutional barriers against bad government policy.
June 16, 2016

The Authoritarian Populism Index: Main Findings

The Authoritarian Populist Index (TAP) includes both right- and left-wing populist parties and covers all national elections in 33 European countries, from 1980 to 2016. The Index shows an alarming development, with authoritarian and illiberal parties and ideas steadily gaining influence across the continent.
May 4, 2016

Bans on Home-sharing Won’t Redress Berlin’s Housing Shortage

A law banning short-term apartment rentals just came into force in Berlin. The measure, which was passed in 2014 but only entered into force on 1 May, is aimed at releasing housing for Berliners.