Populism represents a challenge to liberal democracy, pluralism, human rights, and the exchange of ideas. This column examines the features and drivers of populism, as well as the potential strategic response by the EU and its member states. This includes a vision for Europe to become the role model for high-income societies providing well-being, lower unemployment, and less inequality, and a leader in decarbonisation and public sector management.
Politics and economics
How the personnel of the state perform is likely to have important implications for its effectiveness and economic performance. This column combines administrative records with survey data on the performance of Indian Administrative Service officers to examine how social proximity affects bureaucrat performance. The results suggest that officers allocated to their home state perform worse than comparable officers who are allocated to non-home states.
State borders can change due to both political and economic disputes. This column shows how the formation of the German state can be traced back to British political intervention at the end of the Napoleonic War. In preventing Russia from gaining territory westwards, Britain set in motion a series of events that gave Prussia strategic trade advantages. This led to the formation of Europe's first customs union (the Zollverein) and prepared the political unification of Germany.
Populists often claim that immigration is a threat to the interests of the majority. This column quantifies the extent to which the media coverage of immigrant crime fuelled populist political support in a Swiss referendum. It finds that disproportionate coverage of immigrant crime increased an anti-minaret vote by 5%.
The supposed deadline for a conclusion to China–US trade negotiations has been postponed until late April. This column argues that the structural reform aspect of the negotiations is reminiscent of US negotiations with Japan three decades ago, and that the Structural Impediments Initiative between the two countries could, in theory, serve as a useful model for the current US–China negotiations. The question is whether Presidents Trump and Xi have as firm a grasp on economic principles as their predecessors.
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3 - 4 May 2019 / London / Queen Mary, University of London
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15 - 17 May 2019 / Florence, Italy / Florence School of Banking and Finance, European University Institute
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16 - 17 May 2019 / University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal / School of Engineering, University of Minho
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20 - 20 May 2019 / Frankfurt am Main / SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum Deutsche Bundesbank
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20 - 22 May 2019 / Florence, Italy / Florence School of Banking and Finance, European University Institute
